I Know What You Did Last Summer
by Astarpen
Summary: But Santana's eyes are fixed on her husband. His slumped shoulders, and slowed step make her stomach sink. He hadn't noticed her yet, but the moment he looks up and sees her she can feel her heart breaking even before he says the next two words. "I'm sorry."
1. Chapter 1

**AN: As mentioned in my other fic, this is merely a preview for what's to come. The moment Sucker For Pain finishes this will begin. If you want to read at least 40 chapters of this (There's 78 chapters or maybe 75), then well I do have a and a tumblr.**

 **Song: I Know What You Did Last Summer: Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello**

 **Summary:** But Santana's eyes are fixed on her husband. His slumped shoulders, and slowed step make her stomach sink. He hadn't noticed her yet, but the moment he looks up and sees her she can feel her heart breaking even before he says the next two words.

"I'm _sorry_."

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

Santana stirred as she felt warm calloused hands travelling down her back gently. She bit her lip, and let out a small pleased groan when they rested on the small of her back, feeling the fingers slowly began to massage one of her secret erogenous zones. She loved it, getting her back rubbed like this and she stretches hearing her bones pop and crack back into place. "Stats?" She questioned sleepily.

"You didn't watch the game?"

"You were playing Minnesota, of course I didn't watch the game. You won didn't you?"

"Obviously, the streak has been extended."

"Good. Now, stats?"

"Twenty-seven points, seven assists, three rebounds, four steals, one block, two turnovers."

"Field-goal percentage? And how many threes?" Santana asked letting out another low pleased purr. "Mmm, right there, keep going," she orders.

"Forty-six percent, and seventy-five percent from the three-point line. Got all of my free throws."

She nodded in approval, groaning when he hits a sore spot. "Still. I would have thought you were going for a triple double."

He smirks and leans down, whispering low in her ear. "Do you have any idea how sexy you are when you talk basketball?"

"I have an idea." Santana murmurs, a pleased smile on her lips even though her eyes were still closed. She had fallen in love with the dorky gangly high school basketball player as a teenager, but never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined they would have all of this. He was the best shooting guard in the league but all of the money in the world couldn't buy the picture perfect family they had managed to forge through their own blood, sweat and tears. Still, she had her own booming interior design business and fashion label that was taking off thanks to her two-year stint on 'Basketball Wives'. She had the life that everyone dreamed of and she didn't want to take it for granted.

"Just an idea." Charlie's grin turns lecherous at his naked wife beneath him. "Maybe I need to clarify something, then."

"Please do." Santana challenges. He's been on an extended road trip for the last week and a half and maybe she _had_ caught a few minutes of the game but she's going to take any chance she can to be with him. Especially since she has news that will make their time together even _more_ sparse.

But before Charlie can make do on any promise, the door to their bedroom suite opens and the sound of feet against their hardwood floors signal the impending attack. "Daddy! You're back!" Bela cries as she jumps on her parents bed, practically tackling her father in the effort.

Charlie laughs and hugs his almost ten-year-old daughter before scooping up four-year-old Max. "Oh no it's the piranha!"

"Rawr!" Max yells and then giggles, wrapping his arms around Charlie's neck. "I missed you daddy."

Santana rolls her eyes, she's pretty sure that's not the sound a piranha makes but decides to let it go. Instead she watches Charlie rub Max's back and holds him tightly. He was good with them; he may not be the most present father at times but he _tried_. He made it to as many of Bela's recitals as possible, he had even managed to come to Max's play, to Max's delight. He had forgotten his lines and babbled happily, but Charlie had been there.

It's still dark outside, but a glance at the clock tells her that it's pointless to try to put the kids back to bed. "Bela, why don't you take Daddy and let him help you make scrambled eggs for breakfast." She fights the grimace as her stomach flips at the thought and glares teasingly up at her husband. "You do think you can manage that, right?"

"I'll have you know I'm a _professional_ scrambled egg maker." Charlie puffs out his chest proudly.

"Nuh-uh. You play basketball." Max frowns.

"Max, you should know that your daddy is multi-talented. I can cook, I can play basketball and I can be the best dad in the world right?"

Max nods and clings as his dad picks him up and swings him a bit, "Right! Can we—can we has pancakes too?"

"And bacon!" Bela adds grabbing her dad's free hand and pulling him along.

"But of course!" Charlie laughs and lets his kids pull him away from his wife. "Then we'll watch some cartoons and let your mom sleep in." He had the day off, or at least he was taking the day off to spend with his family.

"Then can we play some basketball?" Bela asked grinning, her dad was awesome at it and she loved watching Max attempt to chase the ball around. He usually ended up falling flat on his face or butt and it was funny.

"Yeah!" Max agreed nodding his head still clinging tightly to Charlie, as if making sure that this wasn't a dream. Bela had woken him up to tell him that daddy was back home and he had come running.

"Maybe." His kids pout at this and Charlie shakes his head, "After my workout okay?" Charlie offers glancing back to check on Santana for a moment, she seemed content to simply sleep in and that was fine. Maybe he'd bring her breakfast in bed and they could continue what they had started before the piranhas hit. He could at least keep them busy till the nanny clocked in, then he would definitely give his wife his _full_ attention.

"Come _on_ ," Bela insists tugging her dad along.

"BACON! BACON!" Max yells cheerfully.

Santana snorts and curls back in bed running her hand over her stomach, this was the dream. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that this would be her life. Sure Charlie wasn't perfect, and his job meant that he was busy for huge portions of the year, but their relationship was solid. She had promised herself that she was never going to turn into some of her cast mates. Most of them were _ex_ -basketball wives or ex-girlfriends of NBA stars. That was _never_ going to happen to her, she trusted her husband.

Charlie might have been a basketball star back in high school, but he had also been a tremendous dork who really was clueless when it came to women. It was funny to think that she had taken a chance on a comic book reading mathlete in middle school only to have him turn into what he was today. The growth spurt had definitely helped and her husband towered over her at 6'5", he had been immediately drafted into the high school basketball team by Coach Bieste who had seen the potential. Four years of high school had nearly every college recruiter banging on his door, but finding out that she was expecting Bela spurred him to declare during his freshman year at Syracuse.

Even with her pregnancy she hadn't expected the ring that came the night of his number ten draft pick to the Lakers. Her parents hadn't exactly been thrilled that she had gotten pregnant and that Charlie was dropping out of university. Charlie's parents hadn't approved, according to Russell who was now Charlie's manager she was a gold digger, Judy was just pleased to have grandkids and Charlie's newfound fame and fortune had a positive effect on the entire Fabray clan. Quinn had married a Broadway 'legend' and was currently the main news anchor for CBS 2 in Manhattan, Brittany was currently on tour with some famous celebrity or another. It was probably another tour with Beyoncé.

All that didn't matter, she wanted to be the best role model for her daughter as possible, Charlie might have dropped out of university to support his family, but she had gone back to school. With a bit of help from Judy and a few nannies, she had completed her business degree. She didn't want her daughter to simply think that she had married Charlie because of all the money he had made, she wanted her to be independent, which was why she made her own money. If anything happened to Charlie, he blew out his knee or hurt himself and had to retire she'd be able to support this family.

She burrowed further into the covers, content. This was the life people dreamed of, and after a little more sleep she'd join her family for another perfect day.

~O~

Santana rolled her eyes and picked up Charlie's shirt from the entranceway to their home gym and watched as he ran on the treadmill shirtless covered with a light sheen of sweat. The kids were busy with the nanny for a bit and she leaned against the door watching him work. He was focused and dedicated, and he had the drive to win. With his free agency coming up next year, everyone was wondering what his decision would be.

They hadn't talked about it, Charlie hadn't made a decision on what to do just yet, he was far too focused on this season. But she knew they would, Charlie didn't make huge decisions like this without consulting her first much to Russell's general chagrin. He was looking at a max-contract with whoever he signed with which meant that they would be comfortable for the rest of their lives.

She smirks and can't resist the urge to be a bit of a bitch and moves to the front of the room without a word. She can feel his eyes on her immediately and she loves the attention he's giving her even though he hasn't said a word. Grabbing one of the mats that are in neat rolls she immediately bends over to place it on the ground and begins to stretch slowly. She can hear the beeping on the treadmill, meaning that he's slowing down. There had been an unfortunate incident once where he had stopped running and had fallen off the treadmill. But she knew she had his full attention now. He was so predictable sometimes and she loved it.

She lays down flat before raising herself in a plank and slowly moving into a downward facing dog position with her heels on the floor. She grins when he lets out a low groan, clearly still enamored with the sight of her ass in her tight yoga pants. She raises one leg slowly toward the ceiling and once she's sure she has her balance she lifts the opposite arm. The heavy sounds of his footsteps as he runs starts to slow, and she knows it won't take long till he's properly distracted. He had been away from them for a week and a half and he had definitely had his fun with the children. Now it was time for him to give her the attention that she wanted.

She relaxes and lets her knees fall to the floor. She moves to a squatted position, planting her palms on the mat and moves her body forward until the weight of her body rests on her hands with her feet completely off the floor. Sitting in the crow position, she smirks and holds it for a while before shifting her hips higher. The treadmill stops completely. "Okay, stop it." Charlie growls from behind her.

"What?" She feigns ignorance. "I'm just exercising."

"That's not—" Charlie hops off the treadmill and immediately makes a beeline towards his wife. "That's not exercise! You're trying to seduce me!"

"Did it work?" Santana asked in a teasing tone, turning to look at him. Well he was definitely standing at attention for her.

"What do you think?" Charlie responds as he begins to shimmy out of his shorts. "Kids?"

"Nanny has them going through their daily routine, we've got the house to ourselves. I gave the staff the day off." Santana smirks watching as he kicks off his shoes and steps out of his shorts. "Actually since I have you here—" she laughs as Charlie picks her up.

"Yes, I know, I need to give you my attention to," Charlie interrupts running his fingers along her sports bra.

"Well, _yes_. If Bela's your little princess and Max is your prince, then I am most definitely the queen of this house."

"If you're the queen does that makes me king right?"

"No, it makes you the jester," Santana teases clinging to him and laughing when he growls and spins her around. "Seriously Charlie, put me down I have something important to tell you."

Charlie frowns, it sounded ominous but he does as she asks and gently places her back down. "Does it have something to do with the kids? Cause they seem happy and healthy. Or is this about my free agency?"

"We do need to talk about that Charlie, but _no_. It's not about Bela or Max, they're fine. I mean we're going to have to work on Max's reading but they're _fine_. I had a doctor's appointment a few days after your last road trip—"

"Oh god. You're not like _sick_ are you?" Charlie's brow furrows. "Is it you know the C-word. I've felt your boobs they don't have lumps in them."

Santana swats his arm hard, "Stop it. I don't have cancer. Let me _finish_." When her husband mouth finally closes she runs a hand along his jaw, he really needed to shave. She hated when he got all scruffy. "I took one of those home pregnancy tests Charlie, and I needed to make sure before I told you—but the doctor confirmed it—"

A grin slowly formed on Charlie's face, "We're having another one? Another baby piranha?"

Santana laughs, she really had no idea where that nickname had come from but she didn't care. "Yes, you got me pregnant again and we're having another baby. I haven't told anyone yet not even the kids, they probably would have told you over the—" Charlie's lips crash against hers and she smiles into the kiss resting her hands against his chest.

"We're having another baby," Charlie mumbles under his breath after breaking away. "We're having another baby!" He repeats louder excitedly, running his hand over Santana's stomach. "How far along?"

"Eight weeks—"

"Oh," Charlie grins a lecherous grin crossing his face. "I remember that one." He immediately gets swatted again gently as Santana shifts so she's straddling him. "We can recreate that time again if you—" This time it's Santana kissing him and he shuts up a smile threatening to burst out. They were having a baby.

~O~

He kept an arm wrapped around Santana as they lay on the couch together, his wife on top of them. The kids would be home soon and they'd have dinner as a family maybe watch a movie or two and then it would be back to business. He had an early morning practice tomorrow and a few meetings before lacing up for his next game the next night. "So—when are you going to tell the show and when can I tell the world that I'm going to be a daddy again."

Santana laughs and listens to his steady heartbeat. "We should probably tell them soon, maybe after the first trimester you know? It's my last season on the show anyway, HGTV wants me to do an interior design show and I want to start focusing on my fashion line."

"Well, you're still going to be my go to when it comes to designing my first shoe. Nike, Adidas, Under Armor—you know all the shoe companies are ready for me to pull that bullet. I know you're under the opinion that I should do it now. but I think Dad's right and I should wait until I have my first NBA championship and my first finals MVP award, he thinks I can get more money from them if I do it that way." Charlie rubs her back. "I haven't won best dress at the NBA All-Star game for three years running because I know how to dress myself."

Santana snorts, "What would you do without me?"

"I don't know. I _know_ I wouldn't have all this if it wasn't for you." Santana was his rock, she was his everything and she kept him grounded. He knew, that he didn't deserve her, and he had most definitely made some mistakes but he was better now. He had rededicated himself to being the best _father_ and more importantly the best husband he could be. There would be no more screw ups, and nothing rocking the boat. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman and—he glances as the doorbell to the mansion rings and he sighs. "It's a bit early for the kids to be back isn't it?"

Santana sighs and shifts rolling off Charlie and patting his chest, "Put on a shirt before you answer the door, I'm going to get started on dinner. Are you still on your diet?"

Charlie smiles and kisses Santana's cheek. "Let's just call this a cheat day," he says as he sits up and fixes his shorts. He probably should have put his boxers back on but he really couldn't be bothered. When Santana fixes him with an unamused look he holds his hands up. "I'll go back to my diet tomorrow, I promise!" The doorbell is rung again and he looks up and crinkles his nose.

"We'll have this discussion later, go get the door," Santana responds pressing her lips against his forehead before heading towards the kitchen. Her husband was _terrible_ when it came to dieting, which was why he wasn't allowed to do the shopping.

Charlie grumbled a bit, that probably meant he was going to get dessert. He sighs and shakes his head before heading to the main door and opening it without bothering to look to see who it was. They lived in a gated community, but it still catches him off guard to see two men standing there in suits in this heat. "Uh—hello?"

"Charles Reagan Fabray." One of the men holds up a badge that identifies him as some sort of police officer while his partner grabbed Charlie's arm and shoves him against the doorframe. Years of basketball training have kept him agile and he slips out of the officer's arm.

"What the fuck—?" Charlie steps back.

"You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law—"

"This has to be some mistake." He assures as Santana comes up behind him.

The officer takes Charlie's distraction and uses it to cuff Charlie behind his back while the other continues with the Miranda rights.

"Santana call the lawyers." He calls. He's seen enough cop TV shows to know that he needs a lawyer, even if this is absolute garbage.

"What are you even arresting him for?" Santana frowns, already dialing the lawyer they use for his contract negotiations. Hopefully he'll know some criminal lawyer that can clear this up.

"Rape."


	2. Chapter 2

He can't believe this is happening. He is _not_ a rapist. It's the only thought that keeps running through his mind when he's fingerprinted, taken through booking, swabbed for DNA and forced to stand for his mug shot that he _knows_ is going to be leaked online. He's not sure if this is all some horrible prank or if it's because he's a multimillionaire, but after booking he's thrown in a little interrogation room and left to wait for his attorney.

He's _not_ a rapist. He would never rape anyone. He was happily married and _yeah_ he had made some mistakes that he hoped Santana would never have to learn about. But _rape_?

The door opens and a woman strides confidently into the room, waving away the officers who had presumably escorted her into the office. "I'm Lauren Zizes, your agent called me. I don't care if you're guilty or innocent. You're being charged with one count of forcible sexual assault, or rape. I've pulled some strings and I'll have you arraigned in an hour so once you can post bail you can be out of here before the morning."

"But I'm _married_."

Lauren arches her brow. "You and I both know that doesn't mean much, especially not in this town."

Charlie flushes. "Who? Who would accuse me of—"

She glances down at her paperwork. After the call from her boss giving her this high profile client, she's been on the phone with the district attorney's office trying to light a fire underneath them. It's a challenge, especially in LA, but there was a reason that she was the best. She's got a copy of the complaint that outlines the State's case against him. Just from a brief glance at the list of the statement of facts it looks like they have plenty of evidence to make this complicated. "Kitty Wilde?"

The name strikes a pang of horror through Charlie. This was his worst nightmare. "No." It's the only thing he can think of.

Lauren nods. It seemed as though Mr. 'I'm Married So I Can't Possibly Be a Rapist' is going to be singing a different tune. It's a shame because that Lopez-Fabray chick was one of her favorites. "I'm assuming that means you do _know_ her, though."

He was _not_ a rapist and he could prove it. "I didn't _rape_ her."

Lauren sighed, this case was probably going to end up as a he-said, she-said case but the police would do their due diligence and upend his life to make sure that there was nobody else who would come forward. She'd have to get some investigators to take a look into this Kitty Wilde person. "I'm sure you didn't." She placated. She really didn't care if he was or wasn't guilty, that wasn't _her_ job. Her job was to make sure that the State could prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt—and in today's day and age, with DNA evidence, surveillance videos, and more that really became beyond _any_ doubt. If she got paid a small fortune, then all the better.

Charlie's eyes narrowed at her tone. "I didn't, and I can prove it! I mean, yeah—fuck—I slept with her like forever ago. But I didn't rape her."

"We don't need to decide our strategy right now—"

"I have a video." Charlie admitted lowly. He still couldn't believe this was happening.

Lauren winced. That could come back to bite them in the ass. Never mind the complications that keeping a video of sex with someone else seemed sleazy and would not impress jurors, if the victim was inebriated or consent was questionable, it might do more harm than good. It _also_ wouldn't be the first time that a high profile victim tried to fabricate evidence that they thought would help. "Once we get out of here—"

"I didn't _rape_ her. I cheated on my wife, fuck I cheated on my wife and I know I fucked up and I'm an asshole but _rape_ —if you don't believe me then get out and find me a lawyer that does believe me and can talk to _someone_ and show them stupid video that I took that night." For once his dad's advice had come in handy and he would never question his wisdom again. There would always be someone who wanted to ruin him, to take what he had or extort him especially women. So he had taken to recording all of his various encounters, to make sure that he was untouchable.

She eyed him carefully before nodding. He didn't have his phone because that had been taken during booking, but she could get the video herself. "How do I get the video? If it really proves you didn't do it, I can take it to the prosecutor and hopefully get this all taken care of tonight." Artie damn well better take her call and if he didn't she'd beat down his door.

~O~

Santana bit her lip and chewed on it absentmindedly, she had no idea what was taking so long. This was all some sort of _sick_ prank, or some woman was trying to get back at Charlie for rejecting her or _something_. She knew her husband, he was a dork and he was a bit awkward with women but he wasn't a _rapist_. Who would make something like that up? The more pressing matter was that she didn't know how she was going to explain this to her children. They _idolized_ Charlie, to hear that he was accused of doing something _terrible_ —she couldn't even begin to deal with it.

Which was why she had informed their nanny, to unplug the television and to stay away from the news. Judging from how her phone was now currently going off every five seconds with calls and texts, it was _all over_ the news. Stupid paparazzi's, someone had already leaked his mug shot to the press and it was currently making the rounds. At least he didn't look like a criminal in the photo, he honestly looked a bit confused as to what was going on. She was surprised that team hadn't sent down an army of lawyers to start cleaning up the mess, and she had to wonder if they were going to leave him out to dry. The NBA and various other organizations had been starting to crack down hard on players. Even this accusation could lead to a suspension while they did their own investigation.

And what were they investigating?

He was a famous celebrity. This had to be some scheme to get rich quick and become an internet sensation. He was a father and a husband and there was _no way_ he was a rapist. He wasn't a cheater either, she trusted him. She hadn't hounded him like all the other wives did. She _trusted him_. Ever since Max's birth he had been _perfect_. In fact, she joked that they were turning into an old boring couple—had he grown bored of her?

She's almost about to terrorize the desk clerk again when the far door opens and Charlie steps outside with two people beside him.

"Mr. Fabray, I apologize—" She can hear the man's apology even from here. He's practically hanging off Charlie.

"Apologies count for squat Abrams, expect a lawsuit tomorrow from my office. We're claiming malicious prosecution, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel and anything else that I can think of. You're going to be lucky to have a job when I'm through with you." The woman rants.

But Santana's eyes are fixed on her husband. His slumped shoulders, and slowed step make her stomach sink. He hadn't noticed her yet, but the moment he looks up and sees her she can feel her heart breaking even before he says the next two words.

"I'm _sorry_."

And just then, her entire world implodes. He may not be a rapist, but she _knows_. He's a cheater.

He reads the realization on her face and he feels his own heart break. He thought they would never have to get to this. No one was ever supposed to know. He steps forward slowly, like walking on a rickety bridge that can fall out from under him at any moment. "It was years ago—fuck, I was so _stupid_ but it's been _years_. And I didn't rape her."

"How many?"

"It doesn't _matter_." He insists, pleading as he holds onto his marriage like sand slipping between his fingertips. "I _love_ you and I'm _so_ fucking sorry."

Santana gulps down on the lump in her throat, fighting her emotions. "How many women?"

"Ten." He admits, his voice cracking. "Other than Kitty, there were ten." He hates that he has to tell her this, hates that he was _so fucking dumb_. He thought he was invincible. He thought Santana would never have to find out and it makes him sick to think that this mistake is going to ruin them. "But after Max was born, I realized—fuck, I love you so fucking much and I just—I haven't even looked at another woman since then—"

Her hand slaps him hard, almost of its own accord. Her palm burns and tingles and it's the only feeling in her entire body that she can actually understand. "I—" She doesn't even know what she's going to say. She's numb.

"Please, just tell me what I have to do to fix this."

"Is there anything left to fix?" Santana laughs to herself. "I just—stay the hell away from me."

Charlie nods wordlessly. Space, he should have known she would need space. But he can still fix this. She just needs space. He needs to prove to her that she can trust him again, that they can still be a power couple. They could get over this and he just needed to prove to his wife that he isn't _that_ guy anymore. "Santana, _please_. I can't do this without you."

It's enough to cause her to turn on him, how dare he say something like that to her when he had done _this_. He had done this to their family. "You should have thought of that before you slept with a bunch of women. Did you need me then?" She hisses at him, not caring that they had an audience.

" _Santana_ —" He reaches to touch her, to hold her. He doesn't care if he has to get on his knees.

Santana shrugs him off and pushes him as far away as possible, before turning around and storming out. She wasn't going to let him off, she wasn't going to stand by him, not for this. She wasn't going to be _that_ woman.

~O~

It was childish and juvenile and all together completely irresponsible, but she didn't care anymore. What good had being careful with the finances and sitting down in boring ass weekly meetings with their accountant? None. Diversification and a strong portfolio meant nothing when her husband was a damn cheater. Having enough money to afford their own small country didn't matter, not when _her_ life was plastered over the internet for the world to see. She had controlled the image before, carefully crafted it but her words were coming back to haunt her. She had _trusted_ her husband, she had put faith in him and he hadn't deserved it, she had gone on television and publicly blasted one of her co-stars for going crazy with jealousy. All of this was coming back to haunt her.

So she was the laughing stock of everyone everywhere, and those that weren't laughing _pitied_ her. Then there were those, the loudest voices that still went after Charlie calling him a rapist, accusing the District attorney and the police of a cover up. That they were protecting one of LA's favorite sons. It was those voices that suggested that she _knew_ about her husband's proclivities and supported them. So right at this moment, she didn't give a fuck about their budget, or their stock options, or diversifying their portfolio, she had ordered a private jet and thrown her phone against the nearest wall as hard as she could. That had stopped the non-stop ringing ever since the story had broken.

She didn't care if it looked like _running_ away and maybe it was. But even with all the protections in place she had needed to move her kids out of that toxic environment. It didn't matter where she moved to, people would always talk even if it was _none_ of their business. Thankfully the middle of nowhere Ohio was destitute enough that the paparazzi wouldn't follow—

"Mommy? Where's daddy?"

She fought the urge to retort with some sarcastic comment. She didn't care where the fuck he was. But part of the reason she was fleeing to Ohio of all places was so that her kids didn't have to be subjected to all of the press about their dad. "Daddy is on a trip, so we're going to go see your abuelos."

"But—he's not supposed to be _away_. Daddy's playing tomorrow! He's gotta practice." Max puffed out his cheeks. Sometimes he was allowed to come watch his dad practice if he behaved himself and he had been super good. Then after they went out for ice cream and his dad took him all over the place.

Bela frowned, this seemed like one of those long trips and her mom had taken away her phone and everything. She didn't even like staying with her abuela and abuelo, she loved them, and liked it when they visited but their house was _so_ boring. "Why did we have to go now? Madison is having a birthday party next week and you said I could go!"

"Yeah, well I lied." Santana shrugs and adjusts her sunglasses on her face. She loved her children but right now—there was a part of her that had wanted to leave them with Charlie and just take off and lick her wounds. She exhales a bit; she really has no idea how she's going to tell them what's going on. She can't hide them from the truth forever.

Bela scowled and was about to say something which would probably get her in trouble when there was a ding as the seatbelt light flicked on. She huffs and puts on her seatbelt, her mom had been acting weird and she wished her dad was here. He wouldn't have lied about it. "I wish dad was here," she mutters after a second

Santana didn't bother to respond to that one, instead she tilts her head so she can look out the window, resting her hand on her stomach. For once she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She shoots a lingering look at her daughter and looks down at stomach for a moment before sighing. The last time she had been in a predicament that was similar to this one she had gone to her own abuela. She shudders to think of what her abuela would say this time, she doubted it could ever be something that could comfort her broken heart. No, it would go something like, _'A man has needs, Santana.'_ Or maybe even a, _'If you were a better wife he never would need to stray.'_ At the very least it would be a _'Don't be an ungrateful cow he put a roof over your head and gave you that fancy lifestyle_ —' Or whatever other garbage she managed to come up with. No, Santana was heartbroken and she didn't need another voice criticizing her every move.

Charlie was the cheater. She was the _victim_ and still everything was going to crumble around her. She wipes at her eyes discreetly, for once happy that she was wearing these oversized sunglasses. Her kids hadn't noticed just yet and she really just needed sometime to herself. She needed to figure out what her choices were.

~O~

Carlos hugged his daughter tightly, _'For once I think it's a good thing that you've decided not to teach your kids Spanish. I don't want them to understand what I'm about to say, the way I'm feeling now_ — _I want to murder him, to beat him for you. I thought he was a good man.'_

"Thanks Papi." Santana murmurs, accepting the lingering hug. She glances over to confirm that her mother has herded the kids toward the car. She pulls away from her dad and follows him silently to the car.

As soon as they are close enough to the car, Maribel grabs her daughter and clings to her tightly. _'Oh Santana. We will get you through this.'_

Santana swallows and hugs her mother back, she just needed some time to figure out what to do, and Ohio was the perfect place to plan her next move. ' _It'll just be for a few days_ —'

 _'_ _Stay, as long as you need. That cover up isn't going to just go away because he's a basketball player.'_

Santana stiffened for a moment, she hated him right now, she was furious at him for putting her through hell but she wasn't going to let her family think that Charlie was some rapist scum, he had sinned but he hadn't done that. _'It wasn't a cover-up. He didn't do that. He cheated on me. He cheated on me when I was pregnant with Max.'_

Max tilted his head when he heard his name and poked his sister, "What are they saying?"

"They're talking about you stupid," Bela retorted trying to piece together what was being said. Her Spanish wasn't _that_ great but she understood far more than her mom gave her credit for.

Max's bottom lip quivered for a moment and he narrowed his eyes at his older sister. " _Mom_! Bela called me stupid."

Santana groans and rubs her brow tiredly. "Maxie, you aren't stupid. Bela, apologize now."

"I want to go _home_." Bela whines. She's tired and hungry and her mom's acting weird and it makes her feel uncomfortable.

"Bela, I _know_. Can you just turn down the bitch for five minutes?" Santana snaps at her daughter, it's enough to silence Bela completely and she feels guilty for having snapped at her. She doesn't apologize though instead moving to slip into the car beside her son, ignoring the glances of her parents. She didn't need the judgement, she was just tired and irritable and even though it was pathetic, she really missed her husband. Why the hell had he cheated? What had she done wrong to make him look elsewhere? Was it revenge for one of her transgressions? As far as she knew, Charlie had been none the wiser about them and she had never done what he had done. She had never broken the vows that they had made to each other. they She wants to curl into a ball and just cry, but she can't she doesn't have that luxury anymore. She needed to be strong, she needed to be smart and she needed to weigh her options.


	3. Chapter 3

"I wouldn't read that if I were you," Russell commented as he moved to pour his son another drink while simultaneously snatching the newspaper away from him. "It'll only drive you crazy. It's out, nothing you can do about it now." He smacks Charlie upside the head with the paper. "We had this talk Charles, the reason you're in deep shit now is because you got caught."

"The reason I'm in deep shit is because I _cheated_ on my wife and got accused of being a _rapist_." Charlie disagrees, flopping back against the couch. This was it, his world was _over_. All because he was an idiot who hadn't understood how good life was and now it was over.

Russell frowned. It's not like Charlie murdered someone. He had an affair. As his manager, Russell couldn't afford to let Charlie take a hit for some innocent mistake. He is one of the most popular players in the NBA and for the last four years he had left the party scene entirely. Maybe this entire debacle could be a good thing and push Charlie back into the clubbing crowd. This could be their chance and he wasn't going to let Charlie waste it.

"She's going to divorce me, I know it." Charlie moans. He _loves_ Santana more than anything and he can't believe this is all coming back to haunt him. Santana was never going to forgive him. How could she? Especially not when he could barely look himself in the mirror. She was going to divorce him and he was going to end up just like Russell, all alone with all of his money and penthouse apartment.

"No, of course she's not. It hasn't been ten years. I tell you Charles, I saw that woman coming from a mile away. She's just like your mother." Russell advises wisely, pouring himself a large drink.

Charlie rolls his eyes, but Russell takes that as his cue to continue.

"She's a gold digger. I _promise_ you she's not going to divorce you now. Not when there's still so much money on the table. It's a good thing I had you both sign that pre-nuptial, otherwise she probably would."

"Santana's not like that." Charlie defends lowly.

"Every woman is like that." Russell sits down beside his son and pats Charlie's knee supportively. "She's not going to divorce you because she will make way more money if she stays married to you for another year and a half. Ten years, that's what the agreement states, and you can bet that she won't be moving out before then."

"Oh great, just what I've always wanted," Charlie snarled, "my wife to stay married to me because of a payout."

"Charles, trust me. She'll come around, but until she does we need to get out in front of all of this. You make far too much money to waste time being upset that you got caught. We need to turn public opinion back on our side—"

"No." Charlie interrupts. He sees where Russell wants to go with this and it sends a chill through him at the thought. He just wants this to be over. "We're not releasing the tape."

"People think you _raped_ a girl, they don't care if you're a cheater but they _do_ care if you're a rapist. We can leak the video and—"

"No way." Charlie insists. "We'll find another way or we won't do it at all. I _don't_ want to leak that video."

"It's proof that you aren't a rapist."

"It's _proof_ that I cheated on my family. Santana deserves better than to see that everywhere." Charlie reasons, shaking his head. He couldn't be that cruel. If that video leaks, then he _knows_ with every fiber of his being that Santana will watch it at least a hundred times to figure out what she had done so wrong to deserve this. He hates himself just a little more at the thought and grimaces. His kids are smart and if it's out there he knows just as well as he knows Santana that Bela will find a way to get her hands on it. No, if he has his way his kids will never know. He can't do that to them.

"Santana is a well-paid whore that has secrets of her own."

Charlie puts down the glass, his eyes narrowing. He knew his father didn't approve of Santana, but he wasn't going to let him talk about the mother of his children like that. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that getting that video out is the best way—"

The door opens, cutting Russell off and both men look up as Quinn storms in. She glances at both of them and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Please tell me you aren't taking _his_ advice." She nods in their father's direction.

Russell frowns but puts down the glass, he would need to talk with the help about who they let into his apartment. "Lucy, what a surprise. Your brother was just realizing—"

"That I made the biggest mistake of my life?"

Quinn studied her father for a moment before deciding that she was simply going to ignore him. It was what she had been doing ever since she graduated from Yale, she didn't know why Charlie kept letting him into his life or why he insisted on keeping Russell on as a manager. Charlie was the one paying for the fancy apartment that Russell lived in, and the booze and his fancy cars. Russell was a _parasite_ and a horrible influence on her brother. But she had drawn the short straw and was here to be 'supportive'. "I thought you had quit doing this crap! You _swore_ to me that you'd stop."

"Quinn—" Charlie immediately scrambled back as his sister approached him. "Quinn—no it's not like that! I swear that it's not like that—"

"I _told_ you that you were being an idiot, just like I _told_ you she needed to know."

"I didn't—Max had just been born what good would it have done to tell her?" Charlie stumbles a bit and immediately holds his hands in front of his face.

Quinn can't help herself and slugs him as hard as she can in the shoulder. "It would have saved her from _this_ you moron. No, you know what would have saved her from this? You keeping it in your damn fucking pants!"

Russell rolled his eyes, shaking his head. He still had no idea where he had gone so wrong with that one, she was the abnormal one, marrying that _girl_. It wasn't how he had raised them and he didn't quite understand how Charles would allow her access to his kids. "As I've explained to Charles, Santana will get over it. She just needs time; he doesn't need you here Lucy."

"If he's listening to _you_ then he does need me here." She snaps.

Russell shook his head, "Everything I've done is in Charles' best interest. Sneaker deals, movie deals, endorsements, I'm the person who made him into a _brand_ name, and right now in case you aren't aware that brand is under fire."

"Your wife wants to leave you and you're worried about your _brand_?" Quinn slides her purse off her shoulder and grabs it and immediately smacks him hard on the body with it. "You think Santana's upset?" She asks, thwacking him hard again, "What about Mom? Or Brittany? You think we wanted to see you end up like _him_?" She hits him a few more times for good measure.

Charlie makes no move to protect anything other than his face, when she starts to slow down panting hard, he peeks out wincing, he was most definitely going to be bruised. "I know I fucked up, but I swear Quinn, I didn't rape anyone. I haven't done anything with anyone else since Santana had Max—"

Quinn pants heavily, she had wanted to do that since he had called her and confessed his sins to her. This was Russell's influence; he had cheated on his pregnant wife. It was something that Russell had probably done every time their mother was pregnant. But unlike their father he seemed to understand that sex wasn't _owed_ to him, and that cheating on his pregnant wife was wrong. She wasn't going to baby him, he had been a sleazebag and a major douche and he knew that beating him up over it wasn't going to help. "Why are you here?"

"What?" Charlie asked immediately.

"For once something we agree on, he bought that damn house. I have no idea why he's being a wuss about this and waiting for Santana to invite him back home," Russell muttered taking a sip of his scotch.

"I've tried calling Quinn—I've left a million messages, I even—you know tried to call Bela and everything. No one is picking up—"

Well at least he wasn't listening to Russell on how to win back women. She had no idea how her father had managed to convince Judy into letting him back into her life. Though she had figured that their reconciliation had more to do with the fact that Charlie had declared and he had wanted a piece of that NBA pie. "Your _wife_ is in Ohio with your damn kids. Did you honestly think that she was going to stay in LA with the paparazzi hounding her?"

"No—of course not. She wants to protect the kids—of course she'd hide out with her parents," Charlie repeats wondering why he hadn't thought of it before. "I need to—"

"What you _need_ to do is hire a PR firm to deal with this nightmare, and while they're doing that you need to get down on your fucking knees and beg Santana not to leave you. You are going to give her whatever she wants so she doesn't divorce your sorry ass." Quinn frowns grabs her brother by the front of his shirt and pulls him along. "You're lucky I love you and don't want you ending up like our father. You know dating women who are younger than his own daughter. Is that the example you want to set for your daughter? Or your son?"

"Of course not," Charlie insists following Quinn without a second thought. He needed to get to Ohio and talk to Santana face to face. "I don't know how to fix it—I need to fix it Quinn," he murmurs to her.

"No shit, you hit the lottery with Santana, Brittany and I _know_ that you aren't going to get that lucky again." Quinn insists, finally glad to be out of their father's creepy bachelor pad. She was definitely going to need to disinfect herself when she got back to the hotel.

Charlie nods, she was right he had gotten lucky with Santana and he had been a shit about it. He knew he didn't deserve her; he knew that if she took him back then he'd rededicate himself to being the best husband the best father that he could be. He had been numb for the past few days in a state of shock. "Quinn," he mumbles looking at his sister who turns to him. He wraps his arms around her hugging her tightly. "I fucked up—oh god I fucked up. Santana—"

Quinn pats his back, sighing. Her brother had always been a dork and a bit of a crybaby until his last growth spurt. "I know, don't worry Brittany and I are going to help you fix it."

"Santana's _pregnant_ ," Charlie manages to get out. "I found out the day of—fuck Quinn. She's pregnant and she knows—how did I fuck up this badly?"

Quinn winces, this was going to be a lot harder than she thought. Thank god that Brittany was currently in Ohio trying to convince Santana to give Charlie another chance. Divide and conquer.

~O~

If Santana had her way she and her parents and her kids would stay locked in her childhood home for the rest of eternity. But unfortunately Maribel had to go to work and Carlos had taken pity on her and disappeared with her kids in tow. She was grateful for her parents' help, she really couldn't do it without them. But she also hated the fact that now she was alone with nothing to do except binge watch Netflix with a tub of ice cream while attempting to stay off the internet.

She was also desperately trying to take her mind off the massive elephant in the room, one which was hard to do because even being in her childhood home reminded her of him. She had lost her damn virginity on this very couch to him. He had been so eager and so gentle and loving—clumsy as hell, but after they had finished he had held her and promised that he loved her. He had promised not to be a jerk about it, like all the rest of his teammates. He had kept those promises to her, and he had gotten picked on because everyone thought he was still some virgin, but he just smiled and held her hand and carried her books like some chivalrous dork.

He had always been awkward around women, always a bit of a dork and maybe that was the reason she never worried. Charlie had been the man who had taken her in his arms when she had told him about the pregnancy, even though their relationship had been on and off for the past few months, and promised to take care of her—of them. He had _declared_ and dropped out university so that he could _support_ her, and he could provide for them. That was the man she had fallen for, that was the man that she had _chosen_ to be the father of her children.

Even though he was romantically challenged, and forgot to put the seat back down in the bathroom, she had _truly_ thought that Charlie loved her. That he would never do something like this, especially since he had seen the devastation that Russell had inflicted on Judy, on their family. Charlie never wanted to be like him and yet here they were. Charlie was his father's son and she was in the exact same position Judy had been in. This was _not_ how she had envisioned her life.

Santana pauses and pulls herself out of her misery and her thoughts when the doorbell rings. She frowns as the person at the door keeps their finger on the button. " _Fuck_ , I'm coming." Santana yells as she makes her way to the door. She hoped to god it wasn't the paparazzi or that Charlie hadn't decided to chase after her. She doesn't bother to glance through the peephole as she swings the door open. " _What_ —" She snaps only to nearly be bowled over as Brittany hug tackles her tightly. " _Brittany_!"

"My brother is a _jerk face_!" Brittany announces as she squeezes Santana tightly.

Santana moves to pull away but Brittany just holds her tighter. She finally gives in and allows Brittany to hold her, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. "Yeah," she mumbles. "He is." She had thought that the Fabray clan would rally around him, that they would take his side but Brittany had always been honest with her.

Brittany sighs and offers one last tight squeeze before finally letting Santana go. "I brought tequila and chocolate and terrible chick flicks."

Santana groans but allows Brittany to pull her back into her parents oversized family room with the gigantic TV. She was grateful, really she was and if it were any other time she'd be downing tequila like there was no tomorrow. "Britt—"

"I also brought presents for my favorite niece and nephew, don't tell Quinn. She gets all irritated when I say that," Brittany explained cheerfully.

"Brittany—"

"I know you're sad and hurt and you have every right to hate him, but I want to be there for you." Brittany rushes to insist.

"You're _family_ , no matter what happens between you and my brother, you'll always be family. I know Quinn feels the same way even if she won't ever admit it. You know she likes watching your show—don't tell her I told you."

Santana lets out a laugh, of course Quinn would enjoy it. The amusement dies away quickly, she had no idea what she was going to do about the show, shooting was supposed to start in a few weeks, and with all of this—she wasn't even sure if she could face her co-stars. She had no idea if it was too late to back out of her contract. She runs a hand through her hair. "I won't," she promises.

Brittany smiles pleased that she had at least managed to get a small smile out of Santana, "Let me go get some cups and we'll start on the tequila—"

"Britt—I _can't_." When Brittany pouts Santana bites her lip and looks away. "I'm pregnant."

Brittany blinked and put the tequila down, "Oh shit."

"Yeah." Santana agrees with a dark chuckle. "Oh shit."

"Did you know?" Brittany clears her throat and gestures vaguely. "Before?"

"Yeah. I just told Charlie—the same day he—" Her voice catches and Brittany scoots closer to Santana. "He was arrested." She straightens herself out a bit. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Brittany waits for Santana to elaborate, but when she falls silent and lost in her own thoughts, then clears her throat. "So what does that mean?"

Santana shrugs. She wishes she had the answers but she doesn't. She was already out of her depth. She had never been _good_ at being pregnant. Some women said they had a glow or loved the happy pregnant hormones but each of her other children had brought hell on her body. With Charlie beside her, she thought this one might even be manageable. But now? She just wasn't sure.

Abortion wasn't something she _wanted_. But could she really bring another kid into this cluster fuck of a family?

Brittany studies Santana carefully, "If that's what you want—I'll support you," she hesitates slightly, she felt as if she was betraying her brother. He would never forgive Santana if she did and there was a good chance that he would never speak to her. "It's your body, it's your _choice_. I know the last two pregnancies weren't easy."

Santana scoffs. "That's an understatement."

"But, I don't think you should do it if it's just going to be getting back at my brother. Not because of Charlie but because I know you'll end up regretting it," Brittany shrugs slightly she knew Santana well enough to know that she'd end up feeling horrendously guilty.

Santana frowns. She's not wrong. A huge part of her wants to be petty and hurt Charlie just as much as she's hurting now. But it feels wrong to her. After a moment she leans her head back against the couch, avoiding Brittany's searching gaze. "I guess I just want to know why. He cheated on me while I was pregnant with Max and I had no idea. Why the fuck would _he_ do that?" She shakes her head and feels the familiar sting of tears burning her eyes. "I don't—"

"You _didn't_ deserve that." Brittany assures. Whether Santana is blaming herself now, or whether that will come later she _knows_ that somehow Santana will twist this around. No, her brother screwed up here and there was no point in trying to justify it. "No matter what you've done or did or whatever, _no one_ deserves that."

"I was _pregnant_." She says again, this time with more anger than hurt clouding her tone. "I was pregnant and on bed rest and terrified out of my goddamn mind that my high blood pressure or whatever I ate would hurt the baby, and he was sleeping with another woman. So why?"

"There's no excuse." Brittany insists. "No excuse is good enough to explain that. But Charlie lets our asshole Dad dictate way too much in his life. I'm _positive_ that all of this somehow goes back to Russell. Charlie was weak and immature and probably thought that he was being cool by partying with idiots. He probably had Russell whispering in his ear about how you'd never have to know."

"That man is the devil." Santana frowned. It made sense but she still felt unsatisfied. Russell had always hated her, had always made snide comments and yet she didn't know why Charlie insisted on keeping him on as his manager. He was the only person in the family who even gave Russell the time of day. She falls silent and takes comfort in Brittany's warm body beside her. "What am I going to tell the kids?"

"That depends on what you want to do." Brittany hums, "You don't need to decide now, but you do need to think about it."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"I wish I could tell you." Brittany offers, but sighs. "But if you are going to take him back make him work for it, don't just forgive him immediately. Foot rubs every day, and he's on diaper duty!"

Santana feels a little hiccup at the thought. Charlie loved being on diaper duty. He was the perfect father—and she should have known that something was wrong.

Brittany nudges her, "Come on, if you can't have tequila that means you need _way_ more chocolate." She grabs the box of chocolates when her phone buzzes loudly in purse. "One second," she mumbles fumbling for it. She grabs it and immediately her heart stops as she glances at Santana before reading the notification. So she liked to read the tabloids every now and again but after today she was _totally_ going to delete the app.

' _Charlie's not a rapist: Santana still devastated that he cheated.'_

 _'_ _NBA's famous couple splitting: at least he's not a rapist?'_

 _'_ _Charlie cheats on Santana: We didn't believe it either until we saw the video'_

 _'_ _Santana dumps his cheating A$$. Charlie's devastated at the loss of his kids.'_

Brittany winces this had just gotten far more complicated than it needed to be. How could Charlie think about releasing the stupid video. There was no way that Santana was going to take him back now.


	4. Chapter 4

It's weird, watching your husband having sex with another woman. It had taken her awhile to actually believe that it was him even though she had seen his face once, in the beginning, but the birthmark on his thigh is what had informed her that this wasn't a hoax. The entire video was only ten minutes long, and it had already led to people questioning his stamina. But it was obvious from his sloppy hip movements and the fumbling that he had been inebriated.

Certainly not drunk enough to forget to wrap it up. At least the only silver-lining to this whole fucking story was that her husband had practiced safe sex and wrapped his damn dick up. He didn't even like using condoms and yet here he was. It was a ten-minute video filled with sweating and grunting and that damn _homewrecker_ , screaming for more like Charlie was some idiot savant with his dick. He wasn't. She loved him but she had needed to give him detailed instructions on how to get her off when they had first started having sex. Practice had made perfect.

"I taught him that stupid move with his hips." Santana grumbles, mostly to herself as she watches the video for what seemed to be the millionth time. It was _different,_ it felt different than when he was with her. Charlie never kissed her, he didn't seem to have an unhealthy obsession with this woman's breasts. Charlie had always been rather tactile when it came to sex for him to barely touch her except to position her the way he wanted—Santana's head snaps up and she slams the laptop closed when the door creaks open.

"Mommy?" Max's soft voice comes into her childhood bedroom.

She glances at the clock and frowns. It's late enough that he should be dead to the world. "What are you doing up, mijo?"

"Is Daddy mad at me because I scuffed his shoes?" Max sniffles and Santana feels like her heart is breaking. He hadn't meant to, he had just wanted to play and his dad's shoes were the best.

"No—your daddy is just—" Santana bites her lip trying to find the words before sighing and pulling him onto the bed with her. He looks just like his father and when he grows up she _knows_ that he's going to be breaking hearts. She had no idea how to teach him, not to be like Charlie in this instance. Max adored his father more than anything.

"He always calls, to say goodnight and to read me a story and to tell me he loves me—does he not love me anymore?"

"Of course he _loves_ you!" Santana insists. She feels a little pang of guilt at the memory of her shattered phone that she hasn't cared to replace. Charlie likely doesn't know where they're at. But she hardens at the memory that he could have found them fairly easily. One part of her wants to tell Max that Charlie's out of their lives for good, but it only takes one look at his clearly distraught face for her to soften a little. "What if we call Daddy?" She suggests.

"Really?" Max brightens at the thought.

"Yes. You can only talk for a minute because you really do need to go to bed, but maybe we can set up something more regular." She had to put the kids first. No matter how much she was hurting she had to make sure that they maintained a relationship with their father. She would do it for them, even if it killed her. She picked up the landline at her parents' house and dialed Charlie's cell number.

 _'_ _Santana? Is that you?'_ He answered on the first ring. Apparently even though he could forget his wedding vows he could remember her parent's number.

She bites her lip, tempted to answer and instead wordlessly hands the phone over to her son. "Hi Dad!" Max brightens at getting to talk to his favorite person.

Charlie blinks, and leans back in the chair he was currently sitting in, ' _Hey bud, how's it going?_ '

"Good, Aunt Britt took us dancing today! It was fun even though she said I danced like you, but you're a good dancer daddy!" Max said in an excited tone as he curled up into his mother's side.

Charlie snorts at this, it meant that Max had clearly inherited his two left feet. 'I _'m sorry I missed it Max._ ' He swallows, wanting to desperately ask about his wife, to make sure that she was okay. He had no idea who had leaked the damn video but once he found them there would be hell to pay. It seemed to be one disaster after another. The league had fined him, he was being benched for the next two games and he was too scared to face his wife. He wanted to. He needed to see his family and bring them home but he was sure that Santana had seen the video, and he wasn't sure if he could take seeing her disappointment. _'Now shouldn't you be in bed? It's pretty late over there.'_

Max huffed at this but nodded despite the fact that his dad couldn't see him, he yawned as well as if his body remembered that he was exhausted. "I know, but I miss you daddy. When are we coming home? Why aren't you here with us?"

Charlie bit his lip, there was a million things he wanted to explain to his son. He had been a terrible role model, and he didn't want his son to to continue this idiotic cycle that the Fabray men seemed to be cursed with. ' _Max your dad made a giant mess and I don't think you're coming home until I fix it_ — _I'm going to try my hard to fix it fast so you can come home and we can be a family okay?'_

Max crinkled his nose and looked up at his mom. "Dad said he made a mess," he whispers to her and shakes his head. "Okay daddy, do you wanna talk with mommy?"

 _'_ _Yeah—'_ Charlie's breath catches when Santana tries to avoid him without letting on to their son.

"Max—"

"G'night Daddy." He declares, handing her the phone. He slides off the bed and walks out of the room without a second glance.

Santana stares at the phone debating as to whether she should just hang up. She's not ready to talk to him yet, but she misses him fiercely and she hates herself for it. "Hi." She says after a minute.

' _Santana_ — _fuck I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. Please come home, please. I'll never look at another woman again; I'll never so much as breathe at one. I've been calling and I just, please I need you.'_ The words come tumbling out and he means every last word of it. Santana was his one and only, he knew that now.

She doesn't know what to say, not really. She's cycling through various emotions between anger and simple disbelief, even though she's seen it she really doesn't want to believe it. "Why?" It's the first word that comes to mind. "Why? I was pregnant with _your_ child, and you—how could you do this to me?" Her voice breaks and she clears her throat, trying to stop the burning sensation in her eyes. She was going to cry again, it made her feel pathetic.

 _'_ _I_ — _fucked up. It wasn't you I was an idiot."_

"You released a _video_." She can't stop it now and the tears rolled down her face. "Was it not enough that you destroyed me? You had to make sure the world saw it too?"

 _'_ _Santana that wasn't me_ —'

"Oh it wasn't? Because it sure looks like your pasty white ass on the camera."

 _'_ _It was five years ago.'_ Charlie defends. It's not an excuse, he knows that. But it's not as if he cheated yesterday. He had been a douche and it was completely unacceptable but he didn't mean it. He was a family man now. He just needed a chance to make this right.

She sighs. This isn't getting her anywhere and yelling at him _doesn't_ make her feel better. It actually just makes her feel worse and she didn't think that would be possible. "So should I be waiting for the next ten videos to start making the media rounds?"

' _Santana_ — _that video was never supposed to be seen. I'm looking for the leak now, but I never wanted you to see it_.'

"Yeah well I never wanted you to sleep with someone else, so I guess neither of us get what we want. So just prepare me. How many others are there? Ten? Twenty?"

 _'_ _There won't be any other's. I haven't been with anyone but you since Max was born. I'm sorry Santana, I know I should have told you years ago. I knew that it was the right thing to do but I didn't want you to leave me. I didn't want all this, I didn't want to fucking destroy you and our family. So please. Forgive me and please come back home.'_

"You say that as if it makes everything okay. I thought we were _different_. Joke's on me, I guess."

 _'_ _It wasn't like that.'_

"So what was it like, Charlie? You cheated on me while I was pregnant and scared. Was it because I asked you to go get me popsicles at one in the morning? Or was I just too fat for you?"

 _'_ _No, of course not_ — _I don't know why I did it.'_ He admits, close to tears himself. He honestly didn't know what he had been thinking when he did it, but he'd been regretting it for years. _'I honestly_ — _I've got no fucking idea. But I was an idiot and I'm sorry_."

"Yeah, well maybe that's not good enough for me." Santana snaps.

Charlie falls silent, holding his breath. When Santana doesn't say anything else and also doesn't hang up he clears his throat tentatively. _'What does that mean?'_

"I don't know." Santana admits. "But maybe we should both talk to a lawyer."

 _'_ _Santana—?'_

"I can't do this anymore, Charlie. I thought we were happy." She takes a deep breath when her voice hitches and makes the decision she already knew was coming. She's been kidding herself if she thought this would end any other way. They can't keep doing this and her kids deserve to have some stability. Custody, routines—they would have to figure it out. "Expect divorce papers." She declares with finality.

 _'_ _And the baby?'_

"What do you care? Go sleep with someone else." She spits, slamming down the phone. Fuck him. When the line doesn't ring, that seems like all the answer she is ever going to get.

~O~

Maribel highlighted another problematic clause in Santana's prenuptial agreement. "I'm an _attorney_. Why the hell would you sign this without telling me?"

Santana shrugs, staring into her bowl of cereal blankly. She hadn't thought it would ever be a big deal. Charlie was supposed to be _it_ for her. She never was supposed to get divorced. "Charlie said it was just a standard agreement. We—I never figured it would be an issue." She corrects herself. "How bad is it for me? I mean he _cheated_. It's all over the internet."

"But this piece of garbage doesn't have any sort of fidelity clause. This is a _terrible_ agreement, and if you had shown it to me before you married him I would have told you that he was a no good asshole."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Santana retorts defensively, glancing around the room to make sure there are no 'little ears' that may overhear. It's almost a reflex to defend him and it fills her with an odd sense of discomfort.

"It _means_ that he's a greedy son of a bitch." Maribel grumbles. "It strips you of nearly everything you've worked for and offers you practically nothing in return."

"I don't want his _money_. I have my own businesses that I run. Remember I have my own fashion line and my own interior design company. I _have_ a job."

Maribel shook her head, "It's a job that you have because you're used his money to _finance_ it. Even the money you got from the show was using his name and connections and according to _this_ he's entitled to _a hundred percent_ of the profits from it."

"What?" It's enough to get her jaw to drop. "He can't _do that_."

"Well we sure as hell aren't going to let him without a fight." Maribel declares with finality. She had _liked_ her son-in-law. Sure, she and Carlos hadn't been thrilled that Santana had dropped out of college for a surprise pregnancy, but she _thought_ that Charlie had been a devoted husband and father. She would make him pay for that mistake. "There's even a provision that requires a paternity test for each of his kids before—"

Santana freezes.

"I find it ironic that the _cheater_ is attempting to claim that those kids aren't his," Maribel shook her head in disgust. She hadn't known her son-in-law at all. Those videos, what he had done to her daughter. It was cruel and callous and she'd be damned if he came near their family again.

Santana rubs her temple tiredly. "It isn't worth it. This whole thing isn't worth it."

Maribel pauses putting the document down, "What?"

"I should just take the kids and go back. He sounded sorry on the phone—"

"You are _not_ going back to that man. Not after he _cheated_ on you and then leaked it to the tabloids. Nothing is worth your pride. What type of message does it send to Bela, huh? That your money and fame is more important than your self-respect?" Maribel snaps at her daughter. She wasn't going to allow her daughter to go back to him. She glances down at the agreement in her hands and shakes her head. If she had known, she would never have given her blessing to the union. She had always thought that Charlie was a good boy, and he adored her daughter more than anything in the world. Perhaps being in LA and all the fame and money had changed him, but she certainly wasn't going to allow her daughter to sacrifice her pride to be with a man who clearly didn't respect her.

"I don't have a choice." Santana snaps back looking back down at her bowl of cereal. All these legal provisions, it didn't sound like her husband it sounded like Russell. This whole contract sounded like something Russell would cook up, but when she had signed this they were just nineteen. She sincerely doubted that Charlie had read the damn thing.

"What are you talking about? Of course you have a choice, we're going to fight this agreement, I'm positive that we can convince the judge that this whole thing is unconscionable because the terms are so clearly one-sided. I'm also sure there's at least _something_ that makes this contract voidable."

"And if there isn't?" Santana challenges.

"We'll think of something else," Maribel finishes before pausing there was fear in her daughter's voice. There's something that she's missing and she's not quite sure what. "What aren't you telling me?" She questions, when her daughter doesn't answer she sighs and reaches to take Santana's hand. "Mija, your father and I will support you anyway we can. If you need to stay here with the kids until you get back on your feet then that's fine."

Santana runs a hand through her hair studying her mother as she chewed on her bottom lip, "I just—" Maribel arched her brow and Santana crumpled under her mother's stern glare. "He can't have a paternity test."

Maribel's eyes widened at this admission as Santana looked away. This was getting ridiculous and if her daughter had indeed had an affair, then this whole mess was considerably more complicated. "Santana—what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." Santana defends. "I certainly never cheated on him."

"But?"

"But, Charlie and I weren't exactly _together_ when Bela was conceived."

Maribel watches her daughter closely, "She's not _his_?"

"No—I mean, she could be—we were on a break. You remember what things were like back then."

Maribel nods. "You two broke up and got back together more times than I could count."

"Yeah. It was never that we didn't love each other. It was just—college and we were young and Charlie was busy. Neither of us wanted our relationship to get in the way of him fulfilling his dreams."

"So?" Maribel prods. "What happened?"

"I was kind of sleeping around and Charlie and I hooked up. When I told him, I _honestly_ thought he didn't care. It wasn't until _much_ later that I realized he thought I had been just as celibate as he had apparently been. I—" She shakes her head, her voice catching with emotion, "I can't do that to Bela. So he _can't_ have a paternity test." She looks at her mother desperately, hoping that she has some sort of solution. She doesn't notice that her daughter had been listening in on the conversation from the hallway.

Maribel blew out a breath, processing that information. After a brief second, she frowns. "We still need to know. In case it comes out or if he forces the issue, we _have_ to know what we are up against."

" _No_. I can't do that to Bela. I chose him to be her father, and even with all this. Charlie is _still_ a good father to those kids. I can't destroy that bond all because he couldn't keep it in his pants."

"The kids don't have to know."

"I'm sure that's what Charlie thought once upon a time as well, that I didn't have to know. I wish I didn't know. Now—well it's hard to unsee." Santana swallows trying to think of a way out of this. "Can I borrow your phone?"

"Not if you're going to call _him_." Maribel retorts, but hands over her phone anyway.

Santana rolls her eyes and calls Charlie. It takes a couple of rings and she almost smirks at the thought that Charlie is still terrified of her mother. _'Hello?'_

"How the hell could you ask for a paternity test?" Santana snaps. It's manipulative and she knows it, but at this point she didn't care. "It's not enough to destroy me but you want to screw up the kids too?"

 _'_ _What are you talking about?'_

"Our prenup." Santana stands. "Do you really hate me that much?"

 _'_ _Our prenup?'_ Charlie gulps, _'Why are you looking at our prenup?'_ He hasn't ever really read through it, but if she's looking at their prenup then he's certain that she's seriously considering the divorce. _'Look, I'm on my way out to Lima right now. Please don't divorce me, I'll do anything.'_

"You mean like take my entire company? Everything I've worked for? If this is your idea of a 'standard agreement', then fuck you."

 _'_ _What? Santana, I promise I had no idea_ —'

"You have no idea who released the sex tape either. So tell me, Charlie _when_ am I supposed to start believing you?"

 _'_ _I don't know.'_ He admits. _'But my dad just handed me the prenup and told me it would protect both of us_ — _'_

Santana scoffs. Russell's hated her since the day she met Charlie and she wouldn't be surprised to see his hand in all of this. "Well maybe that's our answer."

 _'_ _My dad wouldn't do that to me. It's creepy as fuck and doesn't help me at all.'_

"Your dad is a leech and if you have _'no idea'_ about any of this shit, maybe you should fucking ask him. I wonder how much they paid him for that exclusive."

' _Santana_ — _he's my dad and he's been a really good manager. He isn't going to pimp me out for a few thousand dollars. He knew that I didn't want that tape out there. So please, we can work this out. Santana I'm sorry. I know I don't deserve a second chance; I know that you must hate me but please don't leave me. I'll do whatever it takes to earn back your trust.'_

"Fire your father. Then maybe we can talk." She spits before hanging up the phone. She knows he'll never do it and maybe that's the sign that their marriage really is over. Charlie's so desperate for his father's approval that he overlooks how much Russell hates Quinn for being gay or even the snide comments he makes about her own heritage. But she's done. It's either Russell or her. She takes a couple of deep breaths, fighting tears until she feels her mother's warm arms encircle her.

"We'll get you the best lawyers in LA." Maribel promises. She will declare bankruptcy if it comes to that, before she will let her daughter lose everything.


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie exhaled slowly as he exited his car and headed straight towards the garage, he had been going over this conversation in his head since Santana had given him her ultimatum. His hands were sweaty, and his stomach hurt. He wasn't good with this type of stuff, especially not when it came to his dad. Firing him didn't sit right with him, Russell might not win dad of the year award, with how he treated Quinn and his mom, but his dad had protected him. He was just a stupid kid coming out of university and he had been handed a check for a lot of money. If it hadn't been for his dad, he might have blown it all on stupid things. Instead his father had sat him down with a financial advisor and made sure that his money was working for him.

Russell was a shitty father, and an even worse husband. To say he was racist and homophobic would be the understatement of the year. It was why he didn't let his kids around their Grandpa Russ for any extended period of time. All of his negative qualities didn't take away from the fact that his father was a shrewd businessman, one that probably loved money more than he loved his own children. It was the only reason that Charlie had insisted on keeping him on as his agent. Russell was intelligent enough to keep his mouth shut, especially in such a progressive city. Intelligent enough to make him a brand name, he had signed with Nike after his first All-Star appearance and the other sponsorships had just begun to roll in. That was because of his dad.

It was in Russell's best interest to keep him on top, but in a choice between his father and Santana—there was no contest. He would choose Santana in an instant and if this small action was what it took to get her to come home and let him start repairing the damage that he had wrought on their family. He didn't care if he had to get on his knees every day and beg Santana to forgive him, she was worth it. Santana was his _world_ and if this was the price he had to pay then so be it, but he wasn't going to simply let his father hang. He had made sure to get him job interviews with all the best firms.

"Okay dad, we need to talk business and I think it's time we went our separate ways—" Charlie groaned, he had never been good at breaking up with anyone. The times that Santana and him had separated back when he was still a freshman it was usually Santana taking the lead. But she wasn't here right now to help him out with this. Charlie's eyes widened suddenly distracted by the stunning sports car in his father's driveway. His father running a cloth over it cleaning it. " _Shit_."

His words are enough to cause Russell to look up at him and smirk, "I think what you're looking for is. 'Is that the Pagani Huayra?' The answer to that question is yes. No, you can't drive it. You could easily afford one of these if you decided to treat yourself. I mean I still have no idea why you _insist_ on spending your hard earned money on those _shitty_ muscle cars that you favor."

"Santana thinks they're sexy—" Charlie's throat dries. How was his dad going to afford this now? His father always had an expensive taste, he had at least three Bentley's in that garage and a brand new yacht. Santana would never allow him to drop that much money on a car. "Shit, dad."

"You said that already," Russell comments offhandedly as he continues to wash his car. "So what do you need? You usually don't stop by without a reason. I've managed to stop the bleeding by the way, yes you'll have to sit out for the next two games but take that time to heal up. I want you to get your head back in the game. Because the moment that you drop sixty points with a triple double? You're letting the world know that you're unstoppable and that your head is still in the game. People eat that shit up, overcoming adversity and all that other bullshit." He frowns when Charlie doesn't say anything, instead his son is still staring at his car like. "Fine you can sit in the driver's seat."

It's enough to get Charlie to look up at him. He didn't know what he expected from his father in a time like this. Russell had never really been there for him emotionally. He hadn't been supportive of his marriage since day one, and telling his dad that his marriage was in the tubes was not something he wanted to admit. "Santana wants a divorce."

"Of course she does. But once you remind her of what she risks losing, I'm sure she'll come around." Russell assures. All women really were the same.

Charlie frowned, "What does she have? A guy who cheated on her and embarrassed her nationally? She has every right to hate me and to want this divorce, I didn't live up to my damn wedding vows."

"Don't worry I know the best divorce lawyers in the city, that and the pre-nup—"

"Dad—" Charlie began needing to get the words out.

But Russell continued like he hadn't even spoken, "—should keep you married and from paying a cent more than you should have to."

"Santana's _pregnant_." Charlie manages to get out running a hand through his hair. "She's pregnant dad, I'm not going to stress her out—her pregnancies have been difficult enough without some brutal divorce. I need to—"

"Are you sure it's yours?" Russell broke in. He had never liked Santana anyway and if he could get Charlie out from under her thumb he would be able to _properly_ manage his son's career. Santana usually went over Charlie's major contracts with a fine-toothed comb. With her out of the picture, it meant he could take a higher percentage for his hard work. It _also_ meant he wouldn't have to promote any more juvenile family-man PR slants—no, he would be much better off if he could keep them apart.

Charlie took a step back, "Of _course_ it's mine! I'm the cheater in this scenario not Santana, I'm not going to project what I did onto her." He wasn't surprised that his father had even suggested that Santana had cheated on him, he'd been suggesting it since Bela was born. He takes a breath, "Dad, Santana—she's willing to give me another chance. Willing to come home and give me a chance to earn her forgiveness," Charlie exhales slowly. "What I'm trying to say dad is that she—I think it's best if we go our separate ways."

"What?"

"It's for the best." Charlie rushes to explain. He can't screw this up, not now. "I'll tell everyone I know what a great manager you are, but I—she's my wife."

"I'm your _father_. A father who has been waiting for your _balls_ to drop," Russell snaps at him. "I may have cheated on my wife, but I wasn't the one who _told_ you to go sleep with other women. I didn't pick them out for you, I didn't do any of that and you're going to let her blame me for what? Giving you advice on how to _protect_ yourself? You're a grown ass man and you're letting me be the fall guy? You think your _wife_ respects that? Respects your _weakness_?"

"No, but—"

"What about your son? You think he'll be _proud_ to have a father that is a sniveling fool?" Russell shakes his head in disgust.

"You cheated, and look how that turned out." Charlie barks before he can stop himself. "You cheated and now the rest of the family wants nothing to do with you—it's just me. I don't want that, I love my daughter and my unborn kid, I love them. It would _kill me_ to have them treat me like Quinn and Brittany treat you, with utter disdain. I read your pre-nup that you had me sign it _punishes_ Santana into staying with me and I don't want that. I don't want her to resent me, I just—I want my wife back. I fucked up and I know it's going to be a god damn circus full of hoops for me to jump through but it's _worth_ it. She's worth it. So are my kids."

"Your _supposed_ kids. Let me guess she freaked out and made you feel guilty about asking for paternity—"

"It wasn't like that."

"It was exactly like that." Russell concludes. He can see the look on Charlie's face the doubt and he knows he's got his son on the ropes. "A paternity test when the allegations of cheating are floating around is _standard._ Unless she has something to hide?"

"What would she have to hide?" Charlie shook his head bitterly. "She's my _wife_ and I love her. Those kids are _mine_."

"Charlie, you're my son and I know that I'm not going to win any father of the year awards but it's my job as your father and your agent to have your back. To look at things objectively, and yes I dislike your wife, but there were a few other problems in that contract and if she chose to focus on the fact that there was a paternity test then well—there might be something there. Not what you want to hear, I know that but that's what you need in an agent and I have been an _excellent_ agent. I'm making an effort to be a better father too and for Santana to stand in the way of that—"

"She's not standing in the way of it." He denies, sighing as he rubs his head furiously. "Look, I'll talk to Santana and take responsibility. You shouldn't have to lose your job for my mistake."

Russell grins at how easily his son was manipulated and pats him firmly on the back. "Look son, we'll figure it out."

"I just want my wife back dad, I need to make that happen," Charlie sighs and shakes his head. "I need to get to the airport, I need to go to Ohio to see my kids before they start thinking that I don't love them."

Russell rolled his eyes, "You can't go empty-handed, I know a place, that will make her forget about how mad she is at you."

~O~

Maribel and Carlos shared a look as Santana tried to listen attentively to Max prattle on about the newest level of Angry Birds. She was trying valiantly not to show her kids that anything was different, but things were different. She was hiding out in Lima Ohio with her kids. Hopefully keeping them distracted enough to not ask about their father. Bela had actually been _manageable_ lately, she seemed lost in her own mind.

"How about we all settle in and watch a movie?" Carlos suggests carefully.

It is a testament to how off-kilter Santana must feel because she simply shrugs and the kids both squeal in excitement. They don't get far before the doorbell rings, stopping each of them in their tracks.

"Who is it?" Max cocks his head to the side and asks the question each of them are thinking. Carlos hushes him gently and makes his way to the door, preparing for the worst.

"It's not the paparazzi, is it?" Maribel hisses before she can stop herself. She frowns guiltily when her daughter merely glares in response.

Santana rolls her eyes. She should have known that her parents would panic before anything else. "Like anyone would _choose_ to come to middle of nowhere Ohio." She grumbles with a scoff. _She_ didn't even like making the trek from civilization to a town that barely had a stop light. "No. It's not going to be the paparazzi."

Carlos pulls the door open gently and sees the man that he had once thought cared for his daughter the way she deserved. "Charlie." He practically growls, keeping the door as closed as he possibly can.

Charlie gulps. "Hi, sir."

"I'm disappointed in you."

"I know, I am too." Charlie admits. "They're here, though. Right? Can I just—I just need to see her." He doesn't push his way inside even though he desperately wants to.

Carlos stares at the man for a moment, he had assumed that he knew Charlie. Even now he could see the guilt and regret written on his face. Russell had never been around but that didn't seem to stop him from doing the best that he could. "You humiliated her in front of the entire world."

"I know sir, someone leaked the video, but there should never have been a video in the first place." Charlie babbles a bit, swallowing and wondering if he was going to allow him to see his wife and kids. "I just—I know I screwed up, but Santana is the best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm not going to let her go without doing everything in my power to earn her trust and save my marriage. So _please_ let me see her. Let me see my _family_."

Carlos looks back inside for a moment, both of his grandkids missed their father and he knew from his daughter and the numerous pictures she sent him of Charlie in a tutu and a tiara with horrible makeup on, or dressed as a superhero with his kids that he was a good father. While Maribel was willing to crucify him, he wasn't about to stop a man from seeing his children. "If she asks you to leave then you leave."

Charlie swallowed and nodded. "Yes sir."

Carlos steps aside and opens the door for Charlie, just as Max decided to snoop who was at the door. "DADDY!"

"Oh no! I'm being attacked by a piranha!" Charlie smiles reaching down to scoop Max up and holding his son tightly against him. His eyes go searching for his daughter immediately and he hears the footsteps and smiles at Bela, holding his arm open for her.

Bela didn't immediately run to him, instead she studied him carefully for a moment, she glances back at her mother who seemed frozen on the couch. "Max said you made a mess, did you fix it so we can go home?"

Charlie flinched a bit, "Uh—I'm still trying to fix that Bela. I promise I'm trying my hardest to fix it," Charlie glanced around and winced again when Maribel shot him with a positively acidic look.

Bela frowned, something was clearly going on and she still wasn't sure what to think about her mom saying that her dad might not be her dad. "You're supposed to be in Sacramento playing." She knew her dad's schedule by heart, "Why aren't you in Sacramento? Are you hurt?"

"No, uh—" Charlie gulped. He hadn't really thought ahead this far. What was he supposed to say to _Bela_? "The team gave me time to clean up my mess, so that's why I'm here."

Maybe things would have been better if he had called first, or come a few days earlier when he thought he should, but the second his gaze turns and Santana comes into view it is as if the entire world crumbles around her. Her eyes are red-rimmed and puffy and he's _sure_ she's been fighting tears that she'll deny to anyone. His stomach sinks and a pang rips at his heart for being the cause of it. "Hi." he offers lamely.

Everything inside of her wants to yell at him, to pick up the nearest object and use her ridiculously good aim to hit him as hard as she can. But even through the fraying edges of her patience she remembers her kids watching with careful eyes. "Bela, why don't you and Max go with your abuelos."

"I want to stay here." Bela frowns. That hadn't been the plan, they were just about to watch a movie and _now_ her dad was here too.

"We don't always get what we want." Santana retorts, a small snap in her words. She grimaces and tries not to take her frustrations out on her daughter. "Just—go pick up some ice cream."

"We already _had_ ice cream today."

"Bela—" Santana was reaching the edge of her rope and didn't know how much more she had to give.

Charlie thankfully cleared her throat. "I'll be here when you get back, Princess. Mom and I just need to talk about some stuff."

"Fine." Bela grumbles.

Max huffs as his dad puts him down, " _Promise_?"

Charlie nods, "I promise I'll be here when you get back," Maybe they could all finally go home tomorrow, he didn't mind sleeping in the car just so he could be near his family. "Try and find my favorite okay?"

Max nods at this, before turning to his grandparents, "He likes Ben and Jerry's coconutterfly fair, right daddy?"

"Right," Charlie said reaching to muss up Max's hair. Watching as his son beamed in pride. He flicks his eyes to Bela and reaches for her but she immediately ducks behind Maribel and sticks out her tongue at him. Charlie rolls his eyes, "You know I'm going to get you when you least expect it."

"Nu-uh."

"Uh-uh," Charlie smiles at her as Maribel begins to usher them out grabbing their coats. Charlie watches them carefully before shifting uncomfortably when the door closes leaving him alone with Santana. It was the first time they'd been in a room alone together since before he'd been arrested. Charlie swallows, "Santana I—" he turns around and it's only his sharp reflexes that allow him to dodge the remote control.

"What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong with you?" She grabs the nearest thing her hands can find and sends it launching at him, only realizing when he dodges it that it was a lame-ass throw pillow.

"I don't know. Santana, I'm so sorry. I love you more than anything and I was so stupid." He blurts it out before she has the chance to interrupt him. He takes a step forward for a moment, he just wants to hold her and maybe lie to himself that everything was going to be alright. "I was an idiot five years ago Santana, I was immature and I can't even remember what I was thinking, but after I nearly lost you—both you and Max I fucking knew that I was making a mistake. That I was being a piece of shit who was gambling with the best thing that had ever happened to me. There is no _me_ without you, I can't do this without you because you are my strength and I know I fucked up. I know you have no reason to trust me or even give me another chance. But tell me what I have to do to make this better? To fix this and I'll do it." Charlie takes a shaky breath as he continued to approach her. "I love you Santana, I will never stop loving you. I love our life together and I want to spend the rest of my life fixing this till you trust me again. So just—please just tell me what I need to do to fix this. _Please_." Charlie falls to his knees in front of her. " _Please_."

Santana sighs, hating herself a little for how much she loves this stupid asshole. "And if I asked you to go stand on a freeway in your boxers?"

"I'll wear the little ducky ones that I think are embarrassing and hold a sign that says I'm an asshole." He declares without hesitation.

She softens a little at the thought of the boxers that Max had picked out himself. "You'll probably be hit by a car anyway." She dismisses.

He takes a few hesitating steps closer to her. "I probably would. Or trip and fall."

She snorts at that and shakes her head. For being a world famous athlete, he could be a little bit of a klutz when it came to everyday life. "This doesn't mean I forgive you."

"Of course not. I have to _earn_ your forgiveness and I don't expect to anytime soon." He agrees. For the first time since this whole disaster started he pulls her close to him and wraps her up in a tight hug. He's never going to take her for granted again. This whole thing reminded him of just how fragile his perfect life really was.

She takes a deep breath, inhaling the scent she'd missed so terribly the last few days. She _can't_ forgive him, not yet. But she loved him and if he really had changed, if he's _really_ willing to put her before anything or anyone else in his life maybe giving him a second chance wasn't really so bad. "We're probably going to need to do a press conference—and you're going to need a new agent. I'm sure that we'll find someone soon—"

Charlie blanched at that before swallowing, "Santana, this wasn't my dad—it wasn't him who fucked up our relationship. It was me, I don't think he should lose his job because of something I did—"

Santana freezes in his arms. "You didn't fire him?"

"He bought a new car, and he's _right_. All of this, everything we're going through is because of _me_. How can I ask someone else to pay the price for _my_ mistakes?" Charlie reasons. She pushes him away forcefully and he pleads with her to understand. "He's my _father_ —"

"And I was your _wife_." Santana spits bitterly. "I was your wife and I meant _nothing_ to you. So all of that earlier? That was all just garbage—"

"It wasn't." Charlie defends. "I mean every word."

"Except for the fact that your _father_ probably called me a bitch or a whore or whatever he wanted and you decided that his comfort was more important than _our marriage_."

"It wasn't like that—"

"Yeah. It was." Santana shakes her head, her own heart breaking at the words she's about to say. "Get out."

"But I promised the kids—"

"What's one more promise? You're already _so good_ at breaking promises, why should you start caring now?" She sneers. It's petty but she's hurt and angry and out for blood.

"That's not fair."

"What's not fair is that _I'm_ going to be the bad guy here. I'm the one that's going to have to tell our kids that their father cares more about impressing his daddy than being a husband and father. I'm the one who has to avoid interviews and public events so that I don't have to listen to idiotic comments that maybe if I had been a better woman you could have kept it in your damn pants."

"We can make this work."

"How? When I don't _trust_ you. You _just_ told me you'd do anything I asked to fix this and the _one thing_ I asked you to do, you refuse. How _exactly_ are we going to fix this?" She shakes her head, feeling herself grow numb. She had thought he was her forever, that the stars aligned and the fates planned to get them together. What a joke.

"Please—"

"Get out. If you ever loved me, you'll get the hell out of my parents' house and out of my sight. I need _space_ to figure out if I'm willing to become the next Judy Fabray." She slips past him and storms up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door shut a few seconds after she hears the front door open and close quietly.

~O~

Carlos frowned he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting when he came back home but having Charlie sitting out on the front steps in the cold was not what he had expected. Clearly their conversation hadn't gone well and he glances at Maribel.

"I did raise her to respect herself, and she's making the right decision after what he did to her," she murmurs quietly.

"They have children together," Carlos mutters glancing back at his grandkids who were chatting away in the back seat Max holding the small tub of ice cream in his hands, kicking his feet happily. I don't want them growing up from a broken home."

"Well he should have thought of that before he humiliated our daughter," Maribel responded, as the car came to a stop and the kids immediately began to unbuckle their seatbelts so they could go play with their father. "You didn't see the pre-nup he had her sign."

Carlos waits as the kids slip out of the car and slam the door close before turning to his wife. "You and I both know that it wasn't Charlie who made her do anything. He was a nineteen year old who was just handed a whole lot of money and he trusted Russell to help him manage it. Maybe it was a mistake, given how racist his father is, but he was nineteen and naive, you can't blame that one on him not entirely. I think he'll do the right thing by Santana in the end no matter how their relationship ends."

Charlie forced a smile onto his lips as he was hugged by Bela and Max, his son dropping the ice cream into his lap. "There are my piranhas." He wasn't feeling it and he could hear it in his voice as Bela pulled out the plastic spoons that they had gotten from the grocery bag as he opens the container. It drove Santana mad, them finishing a tub of ice cream like this together but it was something that they had done since Max could eat ice cream. It was just their thing when one of them was sad. He takes a spoon and hands it to Max before taking one for himself. "I—we need to talk and it's super important."

"Did you clean up the mess?" Bela asked popping ice cream into her mouth digging into the ice cream.

Charlie sighed, "No, but your daddy—I did something really bad," Charlie admits trying to put it into terms that they could understand for now. "I did something really bad and I hurt your mom a lot. Your mommy is really hurting right now and it's because of something I did, and she's brave and trying to keep you guys safe."

Max frowned at this, "What did you do? And did you say sorry? Mommy said it's important to say sorry."

"I—I broke a very important promise to your mom, the most important promise to her. I did say sorry but I haven't _shown_ I'm sorry yet." Charlie glances at Carlos and Maribel before choosing to ignore them completely. This was on him, and he wasn't going to let them blame Santana for his fuck up. He needed to man up and face the consequences. "That's why your mommy and I are going to be—I'm not going to be coming home for a while until I can show your mom how sorry I am." Charlie immediately continues before they can ask the most obvious questions. "I'm still going to spend time with the two of you, but I need you both to be there for your mom—she's going to need all your love and hugs and support because she doesn't want me to do it for her."

Bela's face fell, this sounded like her friend's parents. "This was how it started. Are you and mommy getting a divorce?"

"What's a divorce?" Max asked.

"When mommy and daddy aren't married anymore, and we get a new daddy and a new mommy and they fight all the time," Bela explains to Max as if it were obvious.

Max's jaw dropped, "We won't be a family anymore?"

"Of course we will, I _love_ your mother and you're not going to get a new mommy, we just need to work things out and I need to show your mom how sorry I am." Charlie explains. "I'm not going to argue with your mom and we're not going to fight." Charlie promises quickly, but Bela doesn't look like she believes him. "Bela, I promise you I'm going to fix this with your mom. I _swear_."

"Keep saying sorry until it works," Max insists he didn't want his parents to get divorced. Whoever came up with that _stupid_ idea.

Charlie smiles at this and nods, "I will. I promise you I will keep working on it till your mom gives me a second chance. But until then your mommy will be sad, so you're _both_ going to have to be extra good and give her hugs and do what she asks to make it a bit easier on her. Okay?" He tries to make his voice stern and it doesn't work but his kids nod anyway. It was one problem solved for now.


	6. Chapter 6

_'_ _Checking in for the Lakers it's number 74 Charlie Fabray.'_

"Bela, turn that down, your abuela and I are having a discussion." Santana snaps. It's been four months and she's no closer to being a divorcee than she was two weeks ago. She was tired of wearing the big baggy clothes and ducking away from the paparazzi that seemed camped outside to get a picture for Star Magazine's next spread wondering if she was pregnant or not. The worst was the Enquirer which suggested that she was stress eating because _Charlie_ had left her. She was also _not_ a food addict, thank you very much.

Instead of the volume going down, the game grows louder throughout their house. _'It's a new look for Fabray, clearly his marital problems have only helped his game.'_

"Bela!"

"Sorry." Bela yelled back even though she wasn't _really_ sorry.

Maribel frowns sympathetically. She knew what it's like to raise a pre-teen and Santana hadn't exactly been easy either. "I think—"

"SLAM DUNK! Daddy just did a SLAM DUNK!" Max yelled loudly cheering as he bounced on the couch.

Santana grimaced slightly, "Max! No jumping on the furniture! You're not Tom Cruise and that isn't Oprah's couch! And what have we said about indoor voices?"

"Sorry mommy!" Max called out. "Bela I wanna see it again!"

Santana rubbed her temples, "So, what did the lawyers say?" She asked looking at her mother. She had been surprised when she had taken a leave to help her with the kids and her pregnancy and make sure that she wasn't getting shafted in her divorce. Her father generally spent the weekends with them. And if it wasn't her parents then it was Brittany or Rachel calling to check up on her, Quinn had shown up once or twice. She hadn't really said anything; she had just whisked the kids away for a special day.

"We've agreed on spousal support, custody, and division of assets. Charlie agreed not to ask to enforce the prenuptial agreement as long as you are willing to be flexible with his visitation schedule." Maribel talks as swiftly as she can, making sure to keep her voice low as to not interrupt the kids.

"And he was okay with two weekends a month, a few weeks in the summer and alternating holidays?"

"He agreed right away, as long as you are willing to work with his work schedule, his lawyers said they were told to give you whatever you want."

Santana rolls her eyes. "Of course he said that." She takes a deep breath, wondering not for the first time how this was her life. "And you think everything is fair?"

"I've been over this with a fine-toothed comb. I can't see any evidence of his father anywhere." Maribel admits. "The only caveat was for spousal support."

"I don't need—"

"Hush. That boy was supposed to take care of you and he broke your heart and he _wanted_ to pay spousal support."

"I don't want to take a dime of his money."

Maribel scowls. "Santana, you're _pregnant_ with his child and it's not exactly been the easiest road already. Put the money in the bank or use it as a nice nest egg. I don't care. But your career has taken a hit and if you're serious about leaving LA—"

"I am. We have to get out of here."

"Then take the money. You aren't even thirty and you'll be a single mother of three with a growing business He promised he would pay spousal support until you married someone else."

"Are you kidding me, this is his way of ensuring that I'm _dependent_ on him, he probably doesn't think I'll actually sign the divorce papers. It's probably some—Fabray mind game or something."

"He isn't _that_ intelligent," Maribel responds flatly. She knew all the Fabray children well, they had practically lived at her house when things had been difficult. Charlie wasn't intelligent in that way, Quinn and Brittany on the other hand were. "You asked me to make sure you got your pound of flesh and this is going to financially devastate him—"

 _'_ _Fabray from long range_ — _sinks the three_. _That makes 35._ '

Santana rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone and typed in her name before reading off one of the headlines from a sleazy magazine. "Santana regretting divorce as Charlie sinks forty." She slides the phone across the table towards her mother so she can read the other headlines. "There are a million of those articles but they don't matter. What matters is this does have Russell's hands all over it and I'm surprised you can't see it. Yeah it's going to cost him _now_ but Charlie's not earning the maximum he could be earning. He's going to sign another contract after next season for a whole lot of money. None of which I'm really entitled to except for the spousal support payments, which I don't want, which will be _nothing_. Not to mention the new endorsements that he's bound to get if they win the title and _if_ he becomes the MVP. This is going to be Charlie's city after that and that means it's going to be Russell's playground. Which means the attacks on my body, the paparazzi hounding me, the shaming that I'm living with won't stop." Santana swallowed clutching her hand tightly, she couldn't protect her kids from that type of hatred and with the entire city turning on her like she was the one that cheated on him. It made the situation infinitely worse. "That's why I need to take my kids _out_ of the situation."

Maribel nods, "Your father and I have discussed it and you know our home is open to you whenever you need it. But we were thinking that maybe you should come back to Ohio? Cleveland has some good schools and your father has been asking around. The houses are considerably cheaper as well." She adds, watching her daughter carefully. She and Carlos were nearly beside themselves with worry and sometimes it felt like Santana was a little more than a functioning zombie. They didn't blame her, but it did little to calm their worries.

Santana draws her lips into a tight line. She _hates_ Ohio, but Ohio is about as far away from LA as she is ever going to get. "I can't move until the divorce is finalized. I don't want him having _any_ claim on my life." She was sure Russell was behind the digging comments and leaked details of their divorce, even if she had no evidence. She just wanted to start over without the Fabray name hanging over her like a weight. She sighs to herself. The saddest part is the pathetic sliver of hope inside herself that keeps wanting to give him another chance. She couldn't—wouldn't act on it. Her kids might not understand now, but they would thank her for her example later.

Maribel arches her brow but doesn't say anything. As much as she wishes she could write Charlie out of their futures he was the father of her unborn child. There wasn't really any way to remove him completely. Unless she murdered him. Which was always an option.

Santana rubs her brow tiredly. Charlie made his choice. He chose his father and the life of fame and fortune over their family. And yeah, he didn't fight her on _anything_ but she wasn't sure if that just made her more furious or if it made her sad. At least if he was being a dick about it she'd know that deep down he was fighting for them, for their family. "I can deal with Cleveland; the kids might not like it right away but it's still something. It's less superficial than LA is that's for sure and the kids can go to school without being hounded by the paparazzi."

"What are you going to do with the house?"

"Sell it." Santana declares with a shiver. She doesn't need the money _now_ but she definitely doesn't need a multi-million-dollar house that only reminds her of what a naive idiot she had been.

"Are you sure? Maybe it's a good idea to keep it as an asset?" Maribel suggests. Santana _loved_ her house, it was the thing that most recreational watchers of that stupid reality show knew about her and it seemed like a kneejerk reaction just to sell it.

Santana shakes her head. She's thought about it a lot. "No. I can't even sleep our—my bed without wondering if he'd ever—" She trails off when her voice catches at the thought. "No. I want the house on the market and then to get as far away from here as possible."

"We're moving?" Bela's voice causes both adults to snap their heads toward her. "Why? Is this cause you and dad are getting divorced?"

It's enough to draw Max's attention as he stops hopping on the couch and walks over to his sister. "How will daddy find us?" He frowns his daddy had _promised_ that he would fix it.

Santana winced it wasn't something that she was eager to share with the kids yet the papers hadn't yet been signed. With the playoffs and everything Charlie had been on the road and hadn't been able to see them as much as he wanted. She doesn't know what to say them but she can only tell them the truth. "Yes we're going to move closer to your abuelo's, so they can help me with the pregnancy. Your father—you'll have the entire summer with him and you can see him whenever you want. But I think the move will be good for us."

Max frowned, he didn't _want_ to move away from his dad, he barely got to see him as it was. He's about to say something when sound of the game starting back up causes his attention to split and he immediately rushes back nearly tripping.

Bela turns to look at her brother for a moment studying him and making sure he wasn't paying attention before looking at her mom for a second, "Are you and dad getting divorced because he's not really my dad?"

Santana's body goes rigid, her mind racing. "Where did you hear that?" She asked but she already knew, she _knew_ that this had Russell's hands written all over it. He had probably said it when the kids were around and Bela had overheard. And Charlie _insisted_ on keeping that man in their lives? Charlie chose _him_ over her?

Bela crosses her arms and raises her brow in a startling display that reminds Santana too much of herself. "You did. I _heard_ you."

Maribel glances at her daughter who looked like she was about to have a coronary and quickly steps in. "Of _course_ he's your father. No one loves you more than your parents Isabela, and it's certainly not something that should be in your head. Your father—loves you and he's your real dad. He changed your diapers, he fed you, he read you stories, he played dress up with you, he's your real dad. So take it out of your mind and don't say anything to anyone, it might really hurt your dad's feelings."

Bela's brow furrowed a bit, "So—it's not my fault?"

"It's your father's fault," Maribel responded.

" _Mami_." Santana scolds, finally managing to catch up. She gestures for Bela to come and sit beside her. When the almost ten-year-old begrudgingly complies, she pulls her daughter even closer. "No. It's not your fault, and sometimes we make choice that we can't take back. Your father will always love you, just like I always love you."

"But he's said sorry, and he got you flowers and he got you chocolate and he's really sorry—and I don't know why he can't come home." The words come tumbling out of Bela's mouth and she scrunches her face trying not to cry.

Santana cringes. It's the question that she's dreaded since this whole mess started. She tucks a stray lock of hair behind Bela's ear as she tries to think of the right response. "I know you don't understand and it's hard and confusing. But sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to."

That doesn't really do anything to make Bela feel better, this was stupid, she knew her dad missed her mom more than anything and he was really weird about it, asking her all sorts of questions and making sure to send them home with lots of bacon and weird gross food whenever it was their turn to spend time with him. But he never came inside anymore or left the car and he was living at Aunt Brittany's place which was covered in cat fur. "But you _love him_ right?"

"Always," Santana promises running a hand through Bela's hair and wiping away her tears gently. She would always love the idiot more than anything. She swallows for a moment, even though it hurts her kids deserve some sense of normality, she was practically dragging them back to the middle of nowhere. "Let's go watch your father play some basketball while he looks like a hobo. I bet that thing he calls a beard is scratchy."

Bela nods and crinkles her nose, "It's _super_ scratchy!"

"ANOTHER THREE!" Max shouts loudly and it's enough to get Bela to pull away from her mom for a second so she could see for herself. "He made the other guy fall on his butt!"

Santana watches Bela for a moment before she pushes herself up and glances at her mom, "I'm going to go watch the game with the kids, but tell the lawyers that all of this is fine and I want to get it over with. So they need to start finalizing, I'll sign after playoffs are done."

~O~

Quinn frowned as she poked the lump that was her twin brother, with a coat hanger. "Are you _sure_ he's not dead?" She questioned Brittany raising a brow. "He certainly smells like it."

Brittany smiled a bit, her brother did smell and she really couldn't blame Quinn for asking the obvious question. "No, he's been like this ever since his lawyers handed him the finalized divorce papers to sign. That's why I called you. He's stinking up my furniture."

Quinn prodded Charlie again raising a brow, "Well it's not like he _has_ to sign them, seriously get up and shower you smell like ass. This is worse than when you went through puberty." Charlie doesn't move and she rolls her eyes. "Seriously, Charlie? You just won the NBA finals, you were MVP, and you knew this was coming. I'm not saying it shouldn't affect you but _come on_ , sitting here stinking up Brittany's apartment is _not_ the answer."

There was a low muffled sound and Brittany sighed taking the hanger and poking him with it. "Charlie, don't make me call mom. You know I'll do it."

"She's taking the kids. I gave her everything she wanted just so she wouldn't take the kids, but she is. She's waiting till I sign the divorce papers then she's going to sell the house and my cars and everything and she's going to take my kids and make it impossible for me to see them for most of the year." Charlie swallows.

"Santana told you this?" Quinn pressed pinching the bridge of her nose. Charlie loved those kids more than anything and it probably had something to do with the fact that he was a giant child. Or at least she thought so.

"No, Bela did."

"You're using your kid to spy on your soon to be ex-wife?" Brittany frowned poking Charlie hard with the hanger again. "Come on, don't be that guy—"

"Santana's _pregnant_. I asked her how her mom was! I think I'm allowed to do that." Charlie snaps smacking the hanger away angrily. He wasn't going to stop caring about his damn wife. "She's the one that told me that Santana's planning to move. Max mentioned it too. No one—she can't take them away from me. I want to be there for them go to their little plays meet their teachers, you know and their friends and watch our Saturday morning cartoons together—"

"So ask to be traded to a place that is closer to them, problem solved," Brittany shrugged this was hardly the end of the world.

"They aren't going to trade him." Quinn responds, if Charlie was just any player they probably wouldn't care enough. "He becomes a free agent next summer, and he's their MVP and the city loves him. They aren't going to trade him, and if he starts making waves now his stock will go down. You're making them a _ton_ of money. Of course they aren't going to trade you and even if they do trade you there's no guarantee that you'll get what you're looking for. There aren't a lot of teams that have the cap space for Charlie's salary right now. Hell people are waiting till he _hits_ free agency to start rebuilding around him."

"Well, that's why you should have kept it in your pants dummy," Brittany poked him again.

Quinn sighed, there was no point in dwelling on this now. "You're going to need to hash this out with Santana, she can't just take the kids and run. If you need to fight this in court—"

"Which is a terrible idea," Brittany says speaking up. "Santana's _pregnant_ and we all know her pregnancies haven't been easy. You're adding stress to already messed up situation and have you read the papers lately. She's probably leaving to get your kids away from having her painted as a devil. I mean I know she likes that but it's not on her terms anymore. Taking them out of LA might be good for them."

"So is having their father around—well that's debatable. None of us really had our father around," Quinn retorts and looks at her brother. Brittany made a legitimate point and Charlie had every right to be feeling—whatever this was. Charlie should never have heard about this from the kids though. "You know what my advice is, get a mediator to hash out a new plan so you can have time with your kids and keep in mind this is less than a year. You can then move to the closest city that you can possibly be to her, at this point any team will be willing to have you."

Charlie swallowed, "I miss her. God I miss her. I just want to go home, this place has cat fur and a cat that hates me and I miss my kids and my wife and she's pregnant and I just want to hold her—god I just want to hold my wife."

"Well, a few suggestions if you're going to see your soon to be ex-wife. Shave. Shower. Put on copious amounts of deodorant," Quinn suggests flatly, she didn't really have any sympathy for him. He _knew_ the destructive nature of cheating and she couldn't believe that he had done it. Not once, but he had done it with multiple women. This was just the consequences of his actions, and while she felt bad for him he didn't deserve her sympathy. Santana hadn't asked him for his left kidney, she had asked for him to fire their father. It was a stupid stand to take, and she didn't quite understand why Charlie hadn't just fired him. Or at the very least let Santana fire him. Maybe their father had something on Charlie. Russell was fucking up his son's life and Charlie just couldn't see it.


	7. Chapter 7

Charlie grits his teeth as he tries to force two pieces of the designer crib together swearing loudly when they clatter to the floor. This has to be _perfect_ and even though it's a few hours before Santana is supposed to come over with the kids, he doesn't want to leave anything out of place.

It's been a year since his divorce was finalized and he hates every second of it. The whole thing sucked because he felt like a part-time father. He had missed the first day of school because of some stupid training camp. He missed Max's birthday because of some freak snowstorm that grounded all flights trying to come into Ohio. Christmas had been brutal, by the time he had woken up the kids had already opened their presents and had begun to play with them. He had fucking missed his newest son's birth because Santana went into early labor and he was on a road trip and _someone_ in his stupid-ass organization didn't feel that was vital information. That had been the last straw. He didn't even get a say in naming Carlos Junior—an obvious dig at Charlie and Russell's relationship—and he can't even say that he blames his ex-wife. But missing CJ's birth sent him dialing up Cleveland's front office himself to declare his interest in joining their team. He wasn't going to leave that to chance. Not when his youngest child cried whenever he held them.

He gulps. Even the thought of calling her his ex makes his stomach drop in disgust. He still loves her so fucking much and it seems like everything he tries to do to show her ends up as one giant cluster-fuck.

Not today, though. He's going to finish this stupid ass crib and show Santana that he could be the man she trusted. He's going to shower his kids with fatherly affection. This year, he's going to win his family back.

~O~

"Are we there yet?" Max asks over the baby's screams. Her almost seven-year-old is nearly bouncing in anticipation and Santana is already fighting a migraine and they still have twenty minutes left to their drive.

"No fart-breath. We just left Mom's house." Bela rolls her eyes and slumps back in her seat, still annoyed that her mom won't let her ride up in the front. She's almost twelve now but her mom keeps trying to treat her like a baby.

Santana sighs. "Isabela, knock off that attitude and apologize." She's been fighting Bela's pre-teen angst nearly all year and she doesn't quite have the patience for it.

"Whatever. Sorry." Bela grumbles, turning back to her phone.

Santana tightens her grip on the steering wheel but doesn't say anything else. She knows that none of this has been easy on the kids either. This would be there first time spending the weekend with Charlie in his new apartment, and she was not thrilled with the idea of letting CJ out of her sight. But it was _his_ weekend and given how absent he had been over the past year, disappointing the kids time and time again she was _not_ going to let him screw this up. "Look, I know you two want to have fun with your dad—"

"I don't," Bela muttered under her breath.

Santana ignored her, Bela had wanted to spend the time at a friend's house this weekend and she had been forced to say no, it was Charlie's weekend. If he wanted to drop her off at her friend's house, then he could make the trip. "But you have to remember to do your homework, and this isn't a party from the rules. I expect you to behave. Which means no eating ice cream for dinner or anything else that I don't allow you to have but I know your father gives to you when I'm not watching."

Max nods and grins happily, "He said that I can pick the color of my room, and talk to someone about how I wanted it to be. It's going to be _super_ cool! And—and he said he had a swimming pool _inside_. That's _so_ cool! Did you pack my trunks mom?"

"Yes, I packed your trunks." Santana rolled her eyes they were going to have to discuss having two closets so that she wouldn't have to worry about packing clothes and could make sure she could focus on making sure that they did their homework. She wasn't even sure what she was going to do with herself this weekend. It was her first free one all year but she wanted to make sure that everything was settled before she allowed herself time to relax. With the producers of Basketball Wives calling her to try and start yet another spinoff she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She didn't want to be in the limelight again. Then there were a few publishers that wanted her tell-all book, probably salivating at the thought of Santana dragging Charlie's name through the mud.

She wouldn't do that, her family had enough bad press to last a lifetime. So each time she politely declined another popped up in its place. Hopefully one day she would get offers that she could actually jump on. It was hard to get a job that suited her needs. She didn't want to be in the public eye anymore but she needed to do something. Her fashion line had already started to falter and her interior design business wasn't doing as well as she had anticipated. It was troubling that her _worth_ was due to Charlie's influence rather than her own skill.

"Is that it?"

Santana shook her head, surprised when she came up to the large upscale apartment building. "Good job Max." Santana praised and followed Charlie's instructions to pull into the parking garage.

They make quick work of utilizing the elevator to finally arrive at Charlie's penthouse apartment. Santana shifts CJ's hat, her son was staring at her with those damn hazel eyes of his, he had his father's eyes and nose and voracious appetite. She glances up as Max begins to knock on Charlie's door as hard as he can.

" _Dad_ , open up!"

"Who is it?" Charlie calls out from behind the door. "I can't see anyone."

Max laughed like it was the funniest joke in the world and kept knocking as Santana rolled her eyes. Not everyone could be freakishly tall like Charlie was. He probably hit his head all the time—actually that explained a lot about her husband—ex-husband. "Charlie."

The door swings open and Charlie grins as Max tackles his legs, "God you're tiny when are you going to start growing," Charlie teases reaching down to mess up Max's hair. He grins at Bela and moves to pull her into a hug when she takes a step back. Charlie frowns at this, "Come on Bela it's been a few weeks, and there's no one else around you can give your old man a hug."

Bela studied her father for a moment, "I was supposed to go to Jenny's house this weekend and it's not fair."

Charlie's smile faded for a moment, he had planned having fun with all his kids this weekend and catching up. "Oh."

"Yeah, mom said I _had_ to come," Bela continues.

"Bela, we talked about this." Santana warns. She hates that she has to be the bad guy but it's important that Bela has her dad in her life.

"No, _you_ talked, but you never listen." Bela snapped snidely.

" _Bela_." Charlie snapped at his daughter, his voice startling CJ and causing him to cry out. Charlie winced and softened a bit. "If you want to go to your friend's house instead of spending time with me that's fine, but you don't get to talk to your mother like that. You don't get to be disrespectful."

Bela resists the urge to roll her eyes and instead turns doe eyes toward her dad. "I'm sorry Daddy."

Charlie practically melts and he puffs out his chest pleased to have been the one to discipline her in front of Santana.

Santana _does_ roll her eyes. Bela is a manipulative little shit like most eleven-year-old girls are with a doting father, but if Charlie's too charmed to see it then she'll let it go. "Since you probably forgot to buy diapers, I packed enough to last him this weekend. I also wrote down every emergency number and in case you need it my father's number." Santana held out the baby carrier for Charlie to take. "There's also enough food but you should probably get that in a fridge. I'm going to assume that you remember how to warm it up?"

Charlie frowns when Santana doesn't let go if anything tightening her grip around the handle. He felt a pang, deep in his chest, he had fucked up with her but he was trying to do right by his children. "Yeah, I remember. I've done this before with those two remember? It's just a weekend we'll be fine."

Santana's nose crinkled at this, Charlie seemed to be remembering things differently than she did. Bela had been a bit of a disaster when she was a child neither one of them really knowing what to do, she hadn't liked breastfeeding and had been colicky. She swallows her pride away and instead looks at her son and strokes his chubby cheeks, "You be a good boy for daddy alright?" She finally let's go of the baby carriage and looks back at Charlie. "Everything is set up? No choking hazards."

"Again, I have done this before," Charlie reminds her dryly but steps aside so Santana can check for herself. He eyes his daughter who's back on her phone. "So uh—if you ever want tickets to see one of my games for your friends—I promise I won't embarrass you."

"Cool." She mutters absently.

Charlie rubs the back of his head, frowning. That hadn't gone the way he wanted it to. He turns to Santana, "Maybe if you have time we could all have dinner together—to establish a routine?" He fumbles for the right words. Maybe if they spent time together, he had no idea how he had managed to get Santana to fall in love with him the first time but maybe they could start with dinner. He'd attempt to be charming, Santana would stare at him and try not to smile as she called him a massive dork and he'd grin and say something cheesy and then maybe he could come home. He missed his wife, god he missed her so much.

Santana glanced at him before continuing to test the crib out to make sure it was sturdy. Judging from the hope written on his features, she knew immediately what he was after and she wasn't going to give in. Even if he finally looked somewhat respectable now that he had shaved his beard. It had looked like a small furry animal had died and gotten glued onto his face. "I can't."

"Oh." His shoulders slumped a little at the rejection.

"She has a date." Bela supplies unhelpfully. "Abuela was worried she'd be lonely."

Santana flicked her eyes towards Charlie who was frowning and looked as if he was about to say something, and this was why the nanny would be the ones shuttling the kids between them. "It's nothing, and even if it was. It's none of your business." She was going to murder her daughter. She had no idea where she'd gone wrong as a parent because Isabela had used to be sweet and innocent. This new attitude was grating and if this was just a preview of her teenage years she was going to dump Bela on Charlie and let him handle it. "Also I thought you said you had this handled."

Charlie frowned, "I do—"

"Then why is your son stripping down to his underwear in your kitchen?" Santana asked pointing to Max who was currently rooting through Charlie's cupboards looking for food while pulling off his shirt.

"Shit—I mean crap—I mean— _Max._ What are you doing kiddo?"

"It's a _boy's_ night! _Duh_. We don't have to wear pants!" Max responds as if it were obvious.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Come on Bela, I'll take you to your friend's house," she says pulling on her daughter's arm. They needed to talk about her attitude because Bela had her father wrapped around her fingers and she knew it. "Oh, I put the emergency numbers on the fridge in case you need them. You'll probably need them." Santana shook her head and pulled her daughter along as she closed the door. Immediately hearing CJ start crying, this was going to be a disaster maybe she should talk to the judge about supervised visits, but she'd check in on them after she had dropped Bela off.

"They'll be fine." Bela assured, punching the button for the elevator forcefully. She didn't know when it had happened, but her mom had become an almost compulsive worrier. Even abuela wasn't allowed to watch CJ without having the list of readily accessible emergency numbers.

"I know they will be." Santana snaps with a confidence she doesn't feel just as the doors open. She steps inside and watches as her daughter pushes the button to the garage, she waits until the door is closed before turning to Bela. "Your father is disappointed you didn't want to spend time with him. He missed all of you this year and this, this was supposed to be a weekend where he probably spoiled the three of you rotten to make up for it. So you want to tell me _why_ you don't want to spend the weekend with your dad?"

Bela groaned inwardly she should have just stayed if she was going to get another lecture from her mom. "Because he's not my dad. I don't even look like him."

Santana pinches the bridge of her nose. "He _is_ your dad; we've talked about this."

"No, he's not. He just thinks he's my dad because you never told him. He just thinks he's my dad. You _lied_ to him, and you didn't forgive him for cheating on you but you did it first." Bela insists shrugging her shoulders.

"I never cheated on your father." Santana bluntly informs her daughter. She's sick of the snide comments that she purposefully left LA to avoid spilling out of her daughter's mouth. "And yeah, you may not look like him, but you're also eleven and you are almost taller than I am."

"That doesn't prove anything." Bela frowns.

"Watch your tone, you're on dangerous ground." Santana warns. "I'm still your mother and I'm not going to tolerate you acting like a little shit." When Bela goes to argue, Santana holds up her hand. "Look, I _know_ it's been hard on you. But your dad loves you and punishing him for something you _think_ you know isn't fair."

Bela stares at her mother a defiant look on her face but Santana had been doing that same look for far longer and she finally looks away. "Whatever."

Santana studied her daughter, this was going to get ugly she could feel it in her bones and she had no idea how Charlie was going to take it but she was going to need to bring Bela into line before someone overheard one of these conversations and decided to use it against her.

~O~

" _Mom_ , what do I do? CJ won't stop crying," Charlie whispered into the phone, screw training camp, he was already physically and mentally exhausted and he didn't quite know what to do with Max running around his new apartment sans pants. Santana had probably gotten him hopped on sugar and unleashed their son upon him as more punishment. He wasn't about to call his ex-wife and admit that she was right and he couldn't handle his own kids. Charlie eyed the carriage where his son was currently screaming at the top of his tiny little lungs.

' _Did you check his diaper?'_ Judy pressed immediately, she had been surprised to hear from her son, he didn't usually call her except on holidays or special occasions to catch up.

"I changed it like ten minutes ago, it smelled like death by the way." Charlie adds. "I was generous with the baby powder too even if it is like some super organic stuff that is probably way more expensive than it has to be because they slapped the word organic on it. Damn hipsters—"

' _Focus Charlie_. _Did you feed him?'_

"I did feed him some organic baby food and I burped him, forgot the towel so now there's like spit up all over my favorite shirt—he got fussy when I continued to hold him though so I put him back in his carrier. He seemed to like it for a while and Max and I were playing with him with the toys."

' _Well, did he yawn?'_

 _"_ Yeah a few times but I've been rocking him to sleep for a while now and he just won't stop screaming." Charlie sighs and unhooks his son and picks him up so he could hold him and rock him properly.

 _'_ _What did Santana say?'_

"Well she sure as hell didn't say he'd scream non-stop." Charlie grumbles. This was supposed to be the easy part. He was supposed to be the awesome father who could do it all and then everything else could fall into place.

Judy frowns. It's hardly likely that CJ developed some serious ailment in the few hours he had been in Charlie's care. _'If you are really worried, maybe you should call Santana. Or Carlos.'_

Charlie shudders at the thought. He doesn't quite want to admit defeat. "Don't you want to come and see your grandkids?" He offers hopefully. With his mom's help maybe he can last until tomorrow night.

Judy cringes but tries not to let it show. Santana may have cut Charlie out of her life but she had been an angel in allowing Judy to remain a part of her grandkids' lives. It may be that now she and Santana shared a common bond as scorned Fabray women, but this was something Charlie needed to figure out for himself. He was a good father and he just needed to grow confident with the new baby. _'I do, but you can handle this. You're his father.'_

"But he's crying." Charlie knew he sounded petulant but he barely got any sleep as he had prepared for the day with the kids and CJ seemed to have unilaterally decided to show Charlie that he was _not_ impressed with his all-star father.

 _'_ _You and Quinn both cried for the first three years of your lives. So pardon me for feeling like it's a little bit of justice.'_ Judy smirks at the memory. _'But if you really think something is wrong then you really should call Santana or Carlos. Though he's at the age where his baby teeth are probably pushing up so he's probably in a bit of pain.'_

"I thought you were supposed to help me." Charlie grumbles, he pats CJ's back firmly and his son squirms in his arms. Charlie blows out a breath before slipping the pacifier into CJ's back, his son glares at him and spits it out. Smacking him across the face. "No. I think he's okay. I think he just hates me."

 _'_ _He probably just isn't used to your scent.'_ Judy surmises Charlie simply hadn't been around long enough to make an impression on his son, who was nearly a year old. _'Did Santana leave you with anything? Like a jacket or a blanket?'_

"I think there was something in the diaper bag." Charlie shuffles and grabs the bag and begins to root through it till he finds a blanket which he pulls out. He drapes it over his son who immediately settles down after a few moments of squirming. Charlie relaxes and continues to rock his son. "I miss her too bud, I miss her too." Charlie mumbles forgetting that his mom can hear him on the phone.

' _Perhaps_ _you should do something about it_.' Judy pressed.

Charlie shakes his head; he could hear the disappointment in her voice. They hadn't _talked_ about it. He couldn't even really look his mother in the eye without seeing how disappointed she was in him. She hadn't said anything of course. "Working on it." He promises before frowning and looking around. Max had disappeared which generally meant that there would probably be a mess. "I need to go find Max and get him settled. Thanks for the help mom."

 _'_ _I love you, son.'_ Judy declares before Charlie has a chance to hang up. She may be disappointed in his choices, but she still adored her youngest child.


	8. Chapter 8

Santana glanced back at her phone for the millionth time in the last twenty minutes. She was sure Charlie would call and demand she come and pick up the kids. It wasn't that she didn't have confidence in him, but there were _definitely_ times over the last few months since CJ's birth that she wished she had that chance.

Nothing. Not even a text.

"Everything okay?" Her date smiled knowingly.

Santana cringes. "I'm so sorry Sebastian. Yes, everything's fine."

"Don't worry about it." He waves away the apology. He's worked with Carlos since finishing his residency and he'd be lying if he wasn't a little excited to meet someone famous. Both Carlos and Maribel, who was friends with his District Attorney father, had prepared him that she might be a little nervous at her first post-baby outing.

Santana shakes her head. Sebastian is perfectly nice and he's even a little charming. "No. I'm sorry, I'm being a terrible date. Let me just—" She fires off a text to Bela and puts down her phone. It's manipulative to use her daughter as a spy, but she'd never be able to relax until she knew the boys weren't murdering their father.

Her phone dings one more time and she sees the forwarded selfie of her ex-husband with a sleeping CJ on his chest and Max curled up beside him wearing nothing more than his Spiderman boxers. Santana crinkled her nose, this was supposed to be _difficult_ but it seemed that Charlie had managed to wrangle the kids like it was easy. "He's just showing off," she mutters under her breath and flushes when she realizes she's still on this date which is really going poorly. "Sorry, I just—it's the first time I've really left CJ alone with Charlie by himself. But of course Charlie is _super_ -dad." She turns the phone around so he can see.

Sebastian studied the picture, "Well, it's probably staged to make him look like that. That's generally what happens in selfies. I mean on closer inspection, I'd be more worried about why your son was only in boxers and what appears to be a box of cheerios that seems to be tipped over in the corner."

Santana smiles, he was trying to make her feel better, "Max doesn't like clothes, it's mostly Charlie's fault."

"Of course," Sebastian grins listening to her. "Wait how is it his fault?"

Santana smiles at the memory, "Charlie rarely wears shirts at home, and then Max started to copy him. Except instead of wearing shorts he decided his boxers were good enough. I've managed to get him stop stripping at school though, and at home when we have company. I think he believes that he's going to get into the NBA just like his father."

"Is he?"

"Probably not, Max has zero hand eye coordination, and he's clumsy, but we're letting him dream big. Plus with my DNA and Charlie's he's probably not going to be freakishly tall. But only time will tell, he is nearly six though."

Sebastian nods slowly. He's not really looking for a serious complicated relationship, but Santana hot and smart and he is definitely attracted to her. "So what's your relationship like with your ex?"

"Why?" Santana narrows her eyes suspiciously. It would be just her luck to go out with a guy who was only trying to get information on Charlie that he could spread to the nearest tabloid.

Sebastian holds up his hands defensively. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I just meant, you're not still hung up on him, right? He's not going to be this huge dramatic issue, is he?" Santana blinks at him, completely surprised and Sebastian takes pity on her. "Look you're famous and frankly you're hotter than anyone in Ohio has a right to be. I know life has sucked for you and I think you're interesting. But I'm not looking for a heavy dramatic relationship."

Santana smirked, she still hadn't completely lost all the weight that she had gained during her pregnancy and she personally thought the dress felt a bit tight, but Sebastian was charming in his own way. "I just got out of a relationship that has basically spanned my teenage and adult life, I'm not looking for anything dramatic either." She admits. "I can't promise that there won't be any drama. He is the father of my children and he _does_ love them very much and he's a bit overprotective."

"It doesn't have to be anything serious at least not right now, we can just enjoy spending time together like this. My life is busy, and I imagine your life is exceptionally busy as well, but when we both have some free time we can do this again? Fun, without the strings attached. I'm not going to put some silly claim on you." Sebastian smiles reassuringly, "But I'm also not going to humiliate you. I know you still have a certain part of your life on display and I don't really intend to make things awkward for you. Or you know have your ex-husband trying to break my face. It's my best feature you know."

Santana laughed, "You don't have to worry about him, he's never really been the one to fight for the things he wants unless it's an orange ball. He's a bit passive when it comes to everything else."

"You sure? The lumberjack look that he was sporting for most of last season says otherwise."

Santana smiles, "You'd think so but the moment he wanted to hold CJ I told him bluntly that he wasn't going to put his germ-filled beard around our son. So he headed down to the store that they had in the hospital got one of those cheap shaving sticks and some shaving cream and half an hour later he was back with a few nicks and smelling like shaving cream so he could hold CJ."

Sebastian snorted, he didn't sound so tough but that didn't mean he was going to risk his life. "Well good to know, still wouldn't want to take my chances with him though pretty sure he outweighs me by a million pounds of muscle and he is taller than me. Like I said—" he points to his face. "My best feature."

Santana rolls her eyes and laughs, she had thought that dating would be hard and awkward but Sebastian was nice, and it was different. She certainly wasn't going to introduce him to the kids anytime soon, but this was a good opportunity to dip her toe in the water again. She hadn't been with anyone other than Charlie in over 10 years and she seriously doubted that Charlie was waiting for her.

~O~

Santana grunts as she flings another insanely large stuffed animal into the back of her car. Seriously? Her boys _definitely_ didn't need any more toys and they especially didn't need to bring them back home. Charlie didn't even need to buy his kids' affections, they loved him that much. Especially Max, he had been hit the hardest but seeing him bounce back did warm her heart. "Joy, more noise makers," she mutters.

"Sorry," Charlie mumbled as he finished putting CJ into his car seat. "They just got super excited. Everything should be up and ready next weekend for when they come to visit, I mean I just moved and—"

Santana held up her hand to stop him from speaking, "I was going to take the kids back to Lima to visit their abuelos. You're scheduled for the first weekend of the month and the last weekend of the month. I know your schedule is crazy but I need the kids to have some sort of routine."

"Oh." Charlie felt his shoulders fall a little, this conversation falling far shorter than how he had envisioned it. He rubs the back of his head, he just wanted to spend a bit of time with his family, "Well, how about I take you and the boys out for some food so you don't have to feed them—well Max when you get home?"

Santana frowns, glancing at her ex-husband for a moment. "About that, I think from here on in the nanny will be doing the custody exchanges from now on. I can pick something up for us on the way home if necessary, I don't need you to buy it for me."

Charlie's face twists, "That's not what I—"

"We're divorced Charlie." Santana repeats firmly, though she's not a hundred percent sure who she's saying the words to. "We _both_ need to move on. So we aren't going to do things as a _family_ anymore, thanks to _you_ we're not that family anymore. Because I'm not going to let our kids think that all because we're being civil to each other that it means that there is a chance that we're getting back together. So _yeah_ the nanny will be doing the exchanges. And _please_ don't be a walking cliché and sleep with her. Last thing I need is to deal with another one of your 'indiscretions' because you can't keep it in your pants."

Charlie frowns. "I wouldn't do that."

"I don't think I ever really knew _what_ you were capable of doing, but that's a mistake I won't make again." Santana snaps. She's glad the boys are both asleep so that for once she doesn't have to be the bad guy here.

"I don't know how many times I have to say that I'm sorry." Charlie shuts the door to the car. He's grumpy and only running on a few hours of sleep and he hates that this mistake from _years_ ago has cost him everything.

"I don't know either." She pushes past him opening the car door so she can get in. She pauses and turns to him, "Maybe when you said you'd do anything and everything to make it better you should do _everything_ and anything to make it better."

Charlie flinches at the harshness in her voice and licks his lips before stepping away from Santana's SUV as the engine comes to life. He doesn't know what to do but wave lamely as Santana pulls out of the parking space and drives away. "I'm trying," he mumbles mostly to himself as he heads back to his relatively lifeless and empty apartment. He didn't have anything to do now, and the thought of working out didn't particularly appeal to him at that moment. Quinn was in New York with her wife, Brittany was probably on another tour with someone famous. Even if they were around, they'd made it very clear that they were on Santana's side in this mess and this was merely the consequences of his actions. The only person who _probably_ didn't hate him in some way was his mother and going to spend time with her was a whole other level of pathetic that he hadn't quite reached. Under normal circumstances he'd probably go bother one of his teammates or maybe find a pickup game or do something charitable but it was a new city and new teammates and he didn't know anybody yet. His training camp would start soon and the connections would be made.

With shoulders slouched in defeat, he fished his keys out of his own pocket. Maybe he could find a good bar, drowning his sorrows seemed like a fabulous idea. But getting drunk with the locals would probably be bad for his image. It was a good thing that he had some alcohol on the top shelves where none of the kids could get to them. A nice bottle of scotch, a housewarming gift from his father. He pours himself a generous portion in a plastic cup and takes a seat on his couch, brushing the toys that he'd bought for his kids onto the ground before turning on the television and flipping it to ESPN.

~O~

Santana stumbles in through the garage door with a screaming CJ and an arm full of Charlie's bribery gifts for their daughter. She dumps the stuffed animals and new iPad onto the dining room table unceremoniously while Max continues to chatter about all the fun he had with his dad. "I'm glad you had a good time." She plastered a smile on her face encouragingly. A sick twisted part of her had hoped that Charlie would struggle with the boys but apparently that hadn't quite been the case.

"And, we went swimming! Dad made me wear the water wings though, even though I said I wasn't a baby." Max continued nonstop. "But then he let me take them off when I showed him I could swim really good."

"Really well," Santana corrected absentmindedly as she placed the baby carrier on the table so she could unbuckle CJ and rock him.

"Yeah, that!" Max said enthusiastically turning when he sees Bela walking down the stairs. He crinkles his nose for a second. "And we ate pizza and chicken and French fries! And we had a lot of ice cream, and I had sprinkles on mine. I think CJ wanted to try some but dad got him a popsicle, he really liked it. Plus he took us shopping and I got whatever I wanted."

"Good for you," Bela snapped at him harshly. She had been enjoying the peace and quiet until it had been interrupted by the return of her family.

"Cut the attitude." Santana warns, levelling her daughter with a look that affirms she isn't going to say it again.

Bela huffs but gets the message clearly. "What's for dinner?"

Santana arches her brow and gestures to the stuff on the table. "Take this up to your room before I change my mind. Your dad didn't want you to feel left out, but if it were up to me you don't deserve it."

Bela eyed the mound of toys and small electronics disdainfully. Did her dad think she was some kind of baby? She didn't need a Hello Kitty stuffed animal, she was almost in middle school. "It's not like I _want_ it."

"Does that mean I can have your 3DS?" Max asked excitedly. Dad had gotten him one too, but if Bela didn't want hers then he could have _two_.

"Yeah, sure whatever," Bela said with a shrug before turning to her mom, "What's for dinner?" She repeats again.

Santana frowned, she wasn't Charlie's biggest fan, no that position was reserved for whoever wanted to put his dick in their mouth, but he had tried to make Bela feel included and even though she wasn't a fan of spoiling her children, he didn't get to see them much, and maybe this was his way of assuaging his guilt. "When did you get so ungrateful?" She holds up her spare hand. "Don't answer that. You're going to call your dad, and you're going to thank him and I don't care what you have to do the next time it's your dad's turn you're going to spend the entire weekend with him."

"You're _forcing_ me to go to dad's house when I don't want to?"

"Why don't you want to go to dad's house? It's _super_ fun and you don't have to wear pants!" Max speaks up looking between his sister and his mom a confused look on his face.

Santana eyed her son, "Don't you dare start taking off your clothes and as for you Bela, your father's season starts soon with training camps so yes, if I have to force you spend a weekend with your dad then so be it. You will go and you will be polite and loving, because so help me god I will make your life hell when you're with me."

"Isn't it hell already?" Bela mutters under her breath. She swallows thickly when she realizes that her mom heard that comment loud and clear. "Sorry, I'll make myself a sandwich."

Santana runs a hand through her hair and looks at CJ who is still crying and fussing, "Let's get you your teething ring. I can't believe I forgot to pack it," she shakes her head. She also hadn't told Charlie that CJ was currently teething but honestly he had done it twice before he should know these things.


	9. Chapter 9

Charlie groaned as he pushed his muscles to work, perhaps, he shouldn't have had that last fifth of vodka the night before training camps started. He felt violently ill, and he could already feel his body, something that he had always called a finely tuned machine starting to gum up as his muscles spasmed as they began to cramp up. He was already two-steps behind everyone and that was simply unacceptable for a five-time all-star who commanded a max contract. This wasn't a good start with the head coach and all the other 'role-players' watching. They would kill to be in his shoes and here he was being exceptionally unprofessional. He grabs a seat on one of the chairs and rubs his calves trying to rub the cramp out. He was most definitely making a _terrible_ impression.

"Here."

Charlie glances up at the Asian man who was offering him a cup of Gatorade, at least he hoped it was Gatorade, but he takes the cup from him and quickly downs it. He was not a fan of the lemon flavor but in a pinch it would do. "Thanks," he wipes his lip and flicks his eyes to him again. "Mike right?"

The other man nods and Charlie can tell that his new teammate hadn't expected him to care about anyone else's names. "Yeah, it's good to have you on the team, maybe now we can bring home a championship. But we've got to keep you healthy."

Charlie swallowed some more Gatorade down, "Don't worry this is a one off, I probably partied a bit too hard last night. But now that the season has started I'll be focused. I grew up in Ohio, so bringing home a championship is on my list of things to do," Charlie pauses for a moment. "But as my old Coach used to yell at me when I was showing off, basketball's a team sport and lone wolves end up getting shot or something."

Mike nods. He's not a man of a lot of words but he respects Charlie's game. "Once the guys see your work ethic, they'll get over any misconceptions. You know how it is, like losing family when someone gets traded. It's difficult but you got to soldier on."

Charlie nods, it sucked more than anyone knew. You'd get used to playing with one guy and then the next week he could be shipped away, he was going to miss the influence he had on the coaches and the front office to make sure the guys he liked playing with stayed. "Well, I plan on earning every penny of my contract," he flicks his eyes to the other guys on the court. Santana had always sort of been his bridge knowing exactly how to help him get over his awkwardness so he could work with these guys. "Hey Mike, you know any good like restaurants or something? Normally me and the family throw like a family day you know, but—" Charlie flicks his eyes back and forces a smile on his face. "Yeah. I think something more low key to show the team that I'm with them."

"Fabray!" One of the coach's assistants' calls, clipboard in hand. "Someone's here to see you. Locker room."

"Who is it?" Charlie wonders, but stands to make his way out of the practice area.

"Didn't get a name." The assistant cringes. "But I can go ask?"

Charlie shook his head quickly. It was weird, all of these people practically tripping over themselves to make him happy. It just made him feel even more alone. "No, it's cool." He assured. He glances at Mike, "Ask around, see what the other guys think. I want to seem—uh approachable." Mike nods and heads back to practice as Charlie forces himself to stand and jogs off the court and heads down to the tunnel to the locker room. He frowns and pushes open the door. He swallows when he hears the GM's voice laughing openly.

" _Chuck_! It's alright if I call you that right?" Burt Hummel the general manager asked turning to him a pleased smile on his face. Charlie was a _prince_ even with his baggage in the NBA and to get him to leave the huge lights of LA to come play in Cleveland? Charlie was the final piece of the puzzle and everyone had been put on notice that they were to make sure that he had everything he needed. Which was why he had thought of this brilliant idea. He tilts his head towards the woman standing beside him. "I'd like you to meet the newest member of our coaching staff."

"Coach Beiste?" Charlie gapes in surprise as suddenly he feels her insanely strong arms wrap around him and pull him into a tight, rib breaking bear hug. He hadn't seen her since his wedding.

Burt grins at Charlie's shock. This is going to be a great year for his team and the whole sports world was already expecting them to be finals contenders. They would bring the championship home to Cleveland, that much was for sure. "I'll let you two catch up. Just let me know if there's anything you need."

Coach Beiste waits for the door to shut before narrowing her eyes at Charlie sharply. "I watched you warm up and I _know_ you can run faster than that. I thought you were just lazy, that you maybe had lead in your legs or something. I didn't figure you'd opened up a distillery in your own liver."

Charlie cringes. No one had kicked his ass or would make him work harder than Coach Beiste, "It won't happen again Coach," he promises running a hand through his hair. "Just been a bit rough since the divorce and the kids not being around. But now that the season has started I'll be focused on work."

She narrows her eyes at him the way she did when he was just a sophomore on the team and he ate three pounds of chocolate before a game. As much as Charlie had been one of her favorite players, she could tell he wasn't putting in as much effort as he should. "You'd better be. Or I'll be on your ass faster than a rattlesnake on a chupacabra."

Charlie frowns, wondering how the hell that would work but he does the smart thing and nods. "Right, of course. New team fresh start. I know I'm not making a good first impression, but I won't let you down coach."

"You'd better not, this is one _hell_ of a job, and right now the entire _state_ has its eye on you. No more fooling around and being foolish." She warns with finality. "Speaking of clean slates, I've met everyone else's agent. Where's your father so I know how to go the other way?" Most agents camp out to meet the new coaching staff, determined to do whatever possible to get their guy more time. It's just part of the business, but she can't say she's surprised that Russell doesn't feel the need to even _try._ She hates the fact that Charlie's let his father weasel into his career and leech of his success but this _is_ business. It, however, doesn't mean she actually has to _talk_ to Russell Fabray.

"Back in LA," Charlie shrugs. "He wasn't thrilled that I was coming back to Ohio, I'd get more exposure in LA—but my kids are in Ohio," Charlie scratches his head and looks away. "And Santana, even if she doesn't really want anything to do with me. She's in Ohio so it just made sense and for me to come back."

Coach Beiste slaps Charlie hard on the shoulder. "Good. Keep him far away, a skunk like that only stinks up everything around him. If he can't get his ass down to Ohio, then maybe it's time you stop paying him."

"But he's my dad." Charlie frowns.

"I don't want to tell you how to run your life, Charlie. But he _is_ your dad. So maybe the question is, if you're in Ohio trying to save your family and _he_ is in LA living it large in a fancy apartment when you are his only client, what are you paying him for?"

Charlie pauses for a moment, she had a point. It was something that had bothered him to some extent but there wasn't a real reason for his dad to be following him around. Most of his deals were done in LA, but they could really be done anywhere. Nike or Adidas would send their representatives to him when they wanted to make a deal. "I guess you're right, I'm still a brand though but maybe I need to break away from LA."

"If you're in the market for a new manager, I do know someone. She's managed some real champions, like Olympic class people Charlie, getting people's faces on cereal boxes, you know stuff like that."

"I don't want my face on a cereal box, Bela would kill me and Max would eat it all the time, which I'm sure Santana would blame me for." Charlie smiles at this.

"Point is, she's good with that type of stuff and she can probably help fix your image, I can set up a meeting for you if you want. Meet with her, get a good feel of what she's about before you start looking. You're divorced, you're in a new city—or old city depends on how you look at it and I honestly think that a clean slate is what you need. Just like I know you need to stop drinking."

Charlie felt his hackles rise defensively. "It's not like I have a _problem_."

"Don't be an idiot. Of course you have a problem." She counters right away. "Your mother was an alcoholic and given how your whole life fell apart in high school and college because of her drinking and your father's general assholery, I can't even begin to understand what would make you want to follow in their footsteps."

Charlie frowns and scratches his head, before nodding. "I'll think about it. I can't really do anything else."

"You'll think about it while doing suicides until you hurl, now get back to the court. Nothing will help more than for the rest of the team to see you the new star player getting taken down a peg or two."

Charlie groans, this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He already felt like shit, but if Coach Beiste was going to be one of his coaches, even an assistant coach he was probably going to hurt all year. He scratches his cheek as he begins the walk back to the court so he can begin to do his suicides. Firing his father wouldn't help him get Santana back, it wouldn't really do anything at all.

~O~

Brittany pushed the doorbell down again, leaning impatiently against the post on Santana's front porch. Charlie's first pre-season game was the night before and she and Quinn had followed their own little tradition and flown in for the game. Now that he was distracted with the kids, it was time to show Santana their support.

"Maybe she's not home?" Quinn offers with a pointed look. She had _told_ Brittany to make sure to give Santana at least a small head's up. But _no_ one ever listened to her.

"This is Ohio. Where else is she going to be?" Brittany shrugs dismissively.

"True. Keep your finger on the button she hates that." Quinn reminds her, she couldn't believe that she had been forced to leave her wife behind yet again to get sucked into the never ending drama that was her brother and her former sister-in-law. Quinn snorts when Brittany pushes the doorbell down, causing ringing all throughout the house.

The door swings open and Santana glares at them angrily. "For _fucks sake_ hands off the doorbell, god you're worse than Max." She had known that they were coming but she had hoped that by simply ignoring them they'd go away.

Brittany grins and immediately launches herself at Santana wrapping her in a hug, "Missed you. I brought Quinn along this time."

"Yay." Santana responds dryly, with a roll of her eyes but opens the door wider for them to come in. "What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be terrorizing your brother?"

"Eh, we already did that." Brittany flops back on Santana's ridiculously comfy couch. It's super stylish too, and Brittany makes a mental note to have Santana make her new apartment look like she's not still in college. "Now it's your turn."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Yeah, no thanks. I just got into another argument with my daughter about seeing her father and spending time with him. The last thing I want is for a judge to get involved, because that will probably all over those celebrity rags that I'm turning Charlie's kids against him. "

Quinn shrugged, "She's a soon to be teenage girl, it's only going to get worse from here on in. And again I can't really blame her for becoming disillusioned with her father. It happened with me and Britt. But at least Charlie's making an effort, so maybe it won't last that long. I mean he is around and _wants_ to spend time with her."

"Tell that to my pre-teen angst ridden daughter." Santana frowns and slides onto the couch after smacking Brittany's legs off it. She rests her head on Brittany's shoulders. "Apart from CJ's teething, the boys are _so_ much easier to deal with right now. I mean yeah, I'm going to have to go through hell to make sure that they don't fall victim to becoming dick's like the rest of the Fabray men, but I'm sure I can put the fear of god into both of them if they so much as disrespect another woman." Santana flicks her eyes towards Quinn, "How's the hunt for acceptable sperm going?"

Quinn made a face before disappearing into Santana's kitchen to fetch them wine. She knew Santana had some wine around the house, probably the good stuff. "Expensive. Especially if it doesn't work the first time. Rachel's worried, and still haven't find the right guy, or well series of numbers and letters. Who knew picking the genetic material for your children could be so damn difficult?" She finds the glasses and a bottle of some red wine and heads back to the living room.

Brittany hummed in response, "At least you can _find_ someone to have kids with. I'm so busy with tours and stuff it's almost impossible to meet anyone and most of the guys on the tour are gay." She hums, there had been that cute guy on Charlie's team who seemed hot, well apart from her brother they were all hot but Charlie would flip out if she even made an attempt.

"Really?" Santana raised a brow, when they were younger Brittany had gone on about all the sex that she was having.

"Well, all of the single ones are gay. The straight ones are married." Brittany dismisses. "Do you want me to talk to Bela for you? As her favorite aunt—" Quinn rolls her eyes so violently that Brittany pauses and smirks, "—I feel it's my duty to make life easier for you and my goddaughter—"

"We're not Catholic."

" _You're_ not Catholic." Brittany retorts, sticking out her tongue.

"Whatever." Quinn interrupts.

"I don't think talking to you is going to work." Santana admits turning to look at Brittany. As far as she knew Quinn had no idea that there was a possibility that Charlie wasn't the father. There were times when her _life_ felt like an episode of Maury. She rubs her forehead, but with Bela's bratty behavior it was bound to come out sooner than later. "She _knows_ Britt. Bela knows."

Quinn frowned, looking between both Santana and Brittany. "Bela knows _what_?" She frowns when Brittany immediately reaches for her glass of wine. Santana doesn't even pretend to acknowledge her and she reaches in and pinches her side. "What _aren't_ you telling me?"

" _Ow._ " Santana snapped smacking Quinn hard on the shoulder. "It's _none_ of your goddamn business!"

"Since when did _that_ stop me? What aren't you two saying?" Quinn insists. She's a journalist and she didn't get to be the youngest lead anchor in her market with her good looks and charm.

Brittany sighed, Quinn would definitely not let it go. She was like a dog with a bone when it came to gossip. "You know how Charlie and Santana were on and off during freshman year right?"

"Who could forget that?" Quinn responds flatly. "All you two talked about was each other, hell I'm _glad_ that my brother knocked you up, got you two to shut up for once and just be happy."

"Yeah, it's _possible_ that Charlie didn't knock her up." Brittany fills Quinn in watching as the glass nearly slipped from Quinn's hand. "Santana's never been sure, and now Bela knows. Who told her, dad?"

"No, sort of. In a backhanded way. Russell made us sign a pre-nup, standard procedure I guess. But when my mom was going over it she noticed that it demanded proof of paternity. He's always suspected and made scathing comments, but it's not like Charlie _believed_ him. Isabela overheard our conversation and now this whole emo thing that she's rocking is all because she thinks that I'm a slut and that Charlie isn't her real father, so apparently that's her excuse for acting like a little ungrateful shit lately."

"Charlie doesn't know?" Quinn gaped she had no idea how to even begin to process this information.

Santana let out a bitter laugh, "Of _course_ he doesn't know. You think he would have declared and we would have gotten married if he thought the kid wasn't his?"

"Yes," Brittany replied with a shrug before anyone else could say anything.

"Britt—" Santana groans pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Charlie _loves_ you. He thought you were the hottest girl back in middle school and would stare at you all the time. You are the woman of his dreams—"

Santana scoffs. "Right that's why he put his dick in other women and filmed it? Then released it for the world to see. It's _humiliating_."

"I'm not defending him now, I'm saying maybe it would have taken another year of you two breaking up and getting back together again but you would have most definitely would still be in the same position." Brittany shrugged.

Santana rolled her eyes, before looking at Quinn who still had a shocked look on her face. "If you spill that wine on my rug you're buying me a new one and it's _expensive_."

"Max and CJ?" Quinn finally asks turning to Santana, her brow furrowing slightly.

"Are his. I haven't been with anyone else since my freshman year—"

"Not even your new boy-toy?" Brittany teased.

" _Brittany_ focus." Quinn snaps at her older sister for a moment as she tries to wrap her head around it. "Okay. Okay, we can fix this—"

"There's nothing to fix—"

"There's plenty to fix. You divorced Charlie. He's paying child support on a child that might not be his. Let's _ignore_ the fact that you lied to him for eleven years. The worst thing about this is that if our father finds out, he will _never_ shut up about it and it might very well push Charlie towards him."

"Charlie is already on _Russell's_ side. I decided that I didn't want my kids to be separated like that. That there would be that divide or that it would show that Charlie didn't _love_ one of them. And now I can't test her because with the scrutiny our family is under the news will _leak_. Everyone will know that she's not Charlie's my name will once again be dragged through the mud and honestly I can't keep running from my damn problems but I'm not going to let my mistake tear my _family_ apart."

"Santana, you _have_ to find out." Quinn shook her head in complete disbelief. "Let's not mention the potential suit for _fraud_ that I'm sure Russell would love to find some asshole to file, but _when_ this comes out it's only going to get worse."

Santana glares at her sister-in-law, she knew she never should have told Quinn. "What part of _keep_ your fucking mouth shut don't you understand?"

"I'm not saying I would leak it." Quinn rolls her eyes. "I'm saying that you deserve to know what you're up against. Because all it takes is Bela making some smart ass comment to the wrong person and you'll have another national scandal that will rock your family."

"I hate to say it, but I agree with Quinnie. Do you really think that if my Dad actually got confirmation of this that he wouldn't try to get Charlie primary custody of the kids just to be an ass? You _need_ to know what you're up against."

"So what am I supposed to do, huh? Just ask Charlie for a DNA sample? He may be an idiot but I'm _pretty sure_ he'll figure out that something is up." Santana scoffs. She's been running from this her entire adult life and if there was any way out of it she would have figured it out already. It's the reason she insisted on starting her own business and finishing her degree. If Charlie _wasn't_ Bela's father—nothing would be the same. Russell would jump on the news and Santana might never see her other kids again.

"It doesn't have to be something _invasive_." Brittany disagrees. "And you have us. Quinn, what do we need for a DNA test?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" Quinn grumbles, pulling out her phone. "I think we can just use a toothbrush or something."

"And you could find someone to do it, right?" Brittany presses, already standing to go grab Bela's toothbrush. "Like you could claim it was part of some boring story?"

"I don't really do investigative reports anymore." Quinn frowns and skims through the google results, "But yes. According to this a toothbrush will work."

Brittany pokes her head out of the bathroom. "And here I thought you'd be complaining that I called your job boring."

"I have just completely given up on ever believing that you will see the value of a news broadcast." Quinn retorts.

"You pretty much just tell scary stories to lead up to the weather and then try to make it better by showing pictures of teddy bears or pandas." Brittany points out. It's a long-standing feud and she loves the fact that after all this time she can still play Quinn like a fiddle.

"I do not." Quinn retorts, gritting her teeth. She _knows_ Brittany is playing her, but she still feels a little guilty that she wasn't able to stop Charlie from being such an asshole. "Just get something of Charlie's and I'll figure it out."

Brittany turns to look at Santana who shrugs, "Don't look at me, everything of his that he didn't come get after the divorce I threw out or donated or sold. I certainly didn't keep any of his toothbrushes, that's disgusting. I know he keeps one in his gym bag, he likes to brush teeth after a game, to get the taste of his mouth guard out of his mouth. So just grab it from his bag. He'll probably think he forgot it or something."

Brittany crinkles her nose, Charlie's gym bag generally smelled like sweaty gym socks sometimes. "I'm going to his next pre-season game. Shouldn't be hard to sneak it out of his bag."

"This needs to be _kept_ quiet, it's hard enough keeping Bela in line. I can't deal with another scandal; it hasn't even been two years since the last one." Santana ran her hand through her hair, she needed to know the truth. It was just a possibility that Bela wasn't his, a small one but she needed to know for her own sanity.


	10. Chapter 10

Charlie moved, his muscles pumping as he lunged for the ball that was heading out of bounds, using all of his speed and jumping at the last second to protect the ball, his fingers manage to slide under it and with a flick of his wrist he launches it behind him hoping that one of his teammates can retrieve it as his momentum sends him careening forward. He can't stop the momentum as he skids against the court and slams hard into the legs of a member of the audience. He can vaguely hear some screaming as the rest of the audience begins to move away from him, he can also hear the sharp shrill whistle causing him to groan. "Ow," he mumbles.

"Tell me about it."

Charlie's eyes snap open at the very feminine voice, and he blinks as he realizes that he had just crashed into a beautiful woman, one that looked familiar. " _Shit_. I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Charlie asks as he pushes himself up ignoring his muscles protesting under what would probably become very colorful bruises. He checks her over but she seems fine as the medical team immediately heads over.

"I'm fine," she promises laughing lightly. "I didn't think that I'd get in the game like this though," she says pleasantly. "Are you okay though? It won't do if this caused the newest star player on my favorite team to get injured before the season even started. We need you to bring home a championship."

Charlie flashes her a smile, "I'm fine, nothing I can't walk off. I mean it's not the first time I've crashed into a woman before, pretty sure it's how I met my ex-wife." Charlie admits scratching his cheek as the medical staff finally make it over. "I'm _fine_ ," Charlie insists swatting their hands away. "Make sure that—"

"Dani, Dani Harper." Dani introduced herself. Amusement dancing in her eyes as she watched him.

Charlie's face scrunched up for a moment, he had definitely heard that name before. He blinks twice, he was sure that Bela listened to her music. He'd be the coolest dad in the world if he could secure an autographed poster or something. "Right, of course. Make sure Dani's okay." He orders, he didn't need to give Bela another reason to dislike him like taking out her favorite musical artist. He flicks his eyes to Dani for a moment rubbing the back of his neck.

"You okay?" Mike asked jogging up to him and patting him on the back.

"Yeah just a bit bruised nothing new," Charlie responds rotating his shoulder. He turns to look at Dani again and flashes her a smile.

Mike turned to look at what Charlie was looking at and slaps his back again, "Pay attention."

Charlie flicks his eyes to Mike and relaxes. "Yeah, yeah," Charlie shakes his head. The game was almost over and they were up by ten. Anything could happen and he needed to focus for the last two minutes. He shifts slightly before moving to go and mark his man. The clock starts moving and he can feel his mark moving against him trying to get open, yet it's not enough to get his mind back in the game, instead they keep drifting back to Dani Harper. His attention snaps back to reality when he gets a sharp shoulder in the chest and he quickly reacts his hands shooting up as the man tries to get the drop on him but he twists his body and manages to get his hand on the ball slapping it away.

He immediately begins to run towards the net when he notices that Mike had picked up the loose ball, he had always had good court vision and keeps moving forward as Mike passes the ball to another member. They'd run the same drill in practice a million times and he jumps twisting his body in the air as he approaches the rim. It's enough to take note of the position of his teammates as the ball flies into his hands and he brings the ball behind his head slamming it down with a no-look alley-oop. There was a reason he had been nominated for the dunk contest every year since his rookie year. He let's go of the rim after swinging himself down, if Max was watching he was probably shouting himself raw at his acrobatics and he grins flashing the camera the thumbs up that would let Max know that one was for him. Now all he needed to do was make sure that Bela thought he was the greatest dad in the world and didn't hate him like Quinn and Brittany hated Russell. He wasn't going to let this _asshole_ that Santana was dating get anywhere near his kids. They were _his_ kids, and he knew _exactly_ how to remain number one in their hearts.

~O~

Brittany slips into the locker room, glad that most of the guys will still be doing the post-game press which gives her the perfect opportunity to slip in and out while still hopefully getting to catch a glimpse of a couple of players in nothing but their towels. She relaxes for a moment when she doesn't hear any footsteps and strolls inside heading to where Charlie's jersey was sitting on top of a duffel bag, she immediately opens up the side pocket and notes the mouth guard which was in its container and a small travelling pack. She zips it open quickly and finds what she's looking for, pulling it out and dumping into a Ziploc bag that she had at the ready before dropping it into her purse. Mission _completed_. Now Santana would have definitive proof that Bela _was_ Charlie's.

"You're not supposed to be in here."

Brittany whips around and flushes under Mike's scrutinizing gaze. "I was just—uh—looking for my brother. I thought he'd be in here." It's a believable lie but Mike is still watching her carefully. She swallows this was _not_ how she had envisioned this going.

Mike nods slowly, "Yeah, he headed out pretty quickly and forgot some of his stuff," He nods towards the jersey. "I think he had a date."

Brittany blinked at this information. "What do you mean a date?" She crinkled her nose, she had always known her younger brother's intelligence was _questionable_ at times, but this was definitely _stupid_ , even by Charlie's standards. It ranked up there with thinking it was a good idea to release a sex tape and getting naked for other women while married to Santana. How did he think he was ever going to win her back if he was going on dates with whatever sleaze of the month he could find.

Mike shrugged, "Uh, that woman he crashed into in the last period. I think he's taking her to dinner or something. Pretty sure he was flirting with her after they collided, and you could tell his mind wasn't in the game for a few seconds. Seriously though, you're _not_ supposed to be in here."

Brittany chews on her lip debating what to do, it was a shame that Mike wasn't just in a towel but he looked nice enough. "I'll take his bag to him." She declares, deciding against bringing him in on her plot. Charlie _was_ a household name and she didn't want to get hot guy in trouble.

Mike frowns and leans against one of the lockers. "And how do I know that you're _really_ Charlie's sister? You could just be some crazy fan that's glad he had family problems so that you can sell his sweaty sock on ebay for a couple thousand dollars."

Brittany pulls a face. "Ew. People would pay for that?" She had spent her entire adolescence finding Charlie's sweaty gym clothes all over the house.

"The point is, you _aren't_ supposed to be here. And I'm not going to be the guy that lets some pretty girl walk in here and make Charlie's family life more complicated."

"You think I'm pretty?" Brittany grins and Mike blushes, then shakes her head trying to stay on topic. "No, I don't want to screw up my brother's love life. He does that well enough on his own."

Mike shrugs but doesn't comment. He's seen enough guys cheat on their wives that it's unfortunately not surprising. The worst part was that he genuinely thought Charlie was a decent guy. It sucked for him that his indiscretion played out in front of the world, but that's the risk they took as professional athletes.

"Charlie and Santana will get back together. I don't know when, or how, but it will happen." Brittany insists. This was just a bump in the road, but she knew how Santana felt about her brother and she knew how Charlie felt about her, and they would work it out once they actually started to talk about it.

"Right, still can't be here." Mike stated with a frown.

"Fine, fine," Brittany said getting ready to leave. "But if you ever want to grab lunch, I'm Charlie's _favorite_ sister. Just ask him for Brittany."'

Mike watched as Brittany bounced out of the room before going to grab his bag and Charlie's shirt. If she really was Charlie's sister then he was going to stay well enough away, the last thing that he needed was having Charlie get mad at him for banging his sister. There was an unwritten code and family meant that she was off limits to him. It didn't matter _how_ pretty she was. He sighed before heading out himself.

~O~

"I'm sorry," Charlie mumbled flushing a bit as he got some mayo on his shirt. He immediately begins to wipe it away with a napkin. "I did warn you that after a game I do become a messy eater." Santana would insist he use a fork and a knife so Max didn't start copying him but he was starving.

Dani laughed, "Don't worry about it I have a brother, I know how it can get when he's hungry. Besides you earned it. I guess you are definitely putting the rumors to rest that you don't want to be in Cleveland, and that you had a rough time during training camp."

"I did have a rough time during my training camp, but I got over it. The moment they stopped treating me like I'm some demi-god sent to bring home a championship and the guys got used to me, I think that things got better. It sucks for some of them, they needed to trade people to make some cap space for me, and while it's business you know, it still sucks. Losing your friends like that. But, like I said I plan on earning every penny of my contract."

"Which is why I was surprised you asked me out for dinner." Dani smirks. She's well aware of the media circus that normally surrounds her. But Charlie was surprisingly self-deprecating for an all-star athlete and if she squinted she supposed that could be charming. She was sure that they would be plastered against every gossip magazine possible for the next few weeks, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

"Well I did run you over." Charlie cringes at the memory. "So it only seemed fair to buy you dinner."

"I can't say that I'm complaining." Dani mused playfully. "Dinner with a basketball star is much better than sneaking a pizza past my personal trainer and stuffing my face in my hotel room."

"You should see what my personal trainer and nutritionist say about my diet. Apparently I need to build a bit more lean muscle. They'd freak out if they saw that I was eating all this," Charlie admits grabbing his milkshake and sucking on the straw. They were the worst, he was in fantastic shape.

Dani reaches for a fry and grabs it taking it from his plate, "Oh I'm currently on a cleanse because I've got a series of photo-shoots next week, I'm supposed to be on this cleanse or whatever. Honestly I just want to go to McDonald's you know?"

Charlie crinkled his nose, he knew all about photo-shoots. "I do, my ex-wife would freak out whenever it was time for her show. She looked beautiful, she always did to me. You look beautiful too."

Dani's chuckle bubbled out of her infectiously. "That's a mighty compliment coming from someone with mayonnaise on their chin." She scoffs. He goes to wipe it off and she smirks when he misses the spot entirely. "Here." She leans forward and wipes her thumb along the corner of his mouth down to the point of his chin.

Charlie gulps. Her face is so close to his and this is what people normally call 'the signal', right? He grasps her wrist gently and leans forward catching her lips quickly in a soft chaste kiss.

Dani pulls back almost instantly, startled. "Oh, um. Wow."

Charlie crinkles his nose, that had been a mistake. He hadn't felt anything when he had kissed her, if anything he just felt upset. He missed Santana, but he had kissed her and now he didn't quite know how to tell her that he'd rather be _kissing_ Santana. She had been the only person that he had ever kissed before, and now he felt worse than normal. "Wow uh—"

Dani frowned ever so slightly, "Look, you seem a nice guy, but—" Dani glanced around noting the cameras that were attempting to be discrete. She winces this wasn't the place and she leans in forward so their faces were just as close as if they were going in for another kiss. "But I'm going to be honest with you, I think we'd both rather be kissing your ex-wife."

Charlie leans back confusion on his face as he studies Dani. "You're—"

Dani narrows her eyes as she leans back, "Yes." She wasn't out to anyone yet and she was going to be dammed if it came out now.

"Oh." Charlie rubs the back of his head.

"Is that okay?" She tests the waters, hoping that her gut instinct wasn't wrong. Charlie seemed like a decent guy but she really wasn't up for more than a publicity show-mance.

"Of course it is." He startles, realizing how that might look. Dani was a practical stranger and had just come out to him in a restaurant. The least he could do was not look like he was an asshole. "My sister's gay. It's not like it's a big deal or anything. I mean—fuck, of course it's a big deal. I just mean—"

She chuckles as he fumbles over his words. Taking pity on him, she teases. "I'd appreciate it if you manage not to leak that—"

"I would _never_ —"

"Yeah, yeah, you _cheated_ on Santana Lopez. With someone who wasn't half as hot as she was. Inquiring minds want to know why."

Charlie picks up his milkshake and takes a sip on it. "We had just had our first kid, and we had gotten married and it was my second season in the NBA when it happened the first time. It wasn't supposed to happen at all, but it did. Santana was busy, being a mother, going back to school full time to get her degree, being everything for everyone else. Any free time she had, she spent it with my sisters. I supported her through all of it though. Whatever she wanted, I was her personal cheerleader. But it felt like I was mostly giving. I wanted to say something to tell her that I was feeling neglected, I mean that's lame and pathetic right? But I was. We weren't having sex; we were barely talking about anything other than her schoolwork or how Bela was doing. We argued a lot about stupid stuff as well. She was always just tired and overworked."

Dani arches her brow, "Yeah, that does seem pathetic." She agrees. "I mean, you sound like a total douche, but I get it. You're human and people make mistakes."

Charlie blows out a breath feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Ten times isn't a mistake it's a pattern. I knew she was tired and I did it anyway. I wanted to talk to her about it, but when I asked the best way to go about it. It was pointed out to me that I shouldn't even say anything and just be supportive. Santana was going to make something of herself and I didn't want to say anything that would make her second guess herself."

Dani winced. "Well that was a major fail then. But that woman—the woman who accused you of raping her, everyone said it was _years_ ago. It's not like you were having an affair with her long term unless you started having sex with someone else."

"No she was the last."

"They say 'once a cheater always a cheater'." Dani points out. "So did you really stop?"

"What are you, an interrogator?"

"You don't have to talk about it." Dani insists, holding up her hands defensively. "But you seem like you need a listening ear with someone who isn't going to condemn you or blow smoke up your ass because you're famous."

Charlie chuckles. "It is nice to finally talk about it. I just—I know it sucked but I was just a kid and the life of parties and alcohol and women just seemed so—it's like I just got so caught up in it that I forgot the stuff that was important."

"So what made you stop?"

"Santana got pregnant again. She had gotten her degree, Bela was no longer in her terrible two's, and she was pregnant. Kitty happened a few weeks after she told me, things weren't good between us, they were better and Kitty happened and I told myself that was it. I was going to fix everything with my wife. I told myself that I wouldn't be my father anymore. The pregnancy was rough on her, and she needed me and I got scared I was going to lose her. It scared me straight and Max was born. I never looked back, things just sort of fell into place after he was born. It just worked between us and we were happy. I was busting my ass to make sure to atone for what I had done. By being the best husband, the best father I could be. She was never supposed to find out."

Dani shook her head, "Yeah, that sucks. I can see your plan but how were you ever supposed to make it right if Santana never knew what you were making up for?"

Charlie shrugs. "There was never the right moment to tell her, like I said Max was a difficult pregnancy and then he was born and she was recovering and I just—never told her. Maybe I should have told her, maybe I could have spent the last few years working on our marriage, so that all this didn't have to be done in the public eye."

"Yeah. That probably would have been better. But here's the thing, Chuck: life doesn't really give us do-overs. And unless you're the Doctor, you don't get to go back in time to reset the universe anytime something goes wrong."

"The who?"

"We're going to have to fix that." Dani dismisses. "But the point is, you fucked up. There's no taking that back, there's only moving forward."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Did it?" Dani shrugs. "If so, then yes."

Charlie sighs and takes another sip of his milkshake, he doesn't quite know what to say. "I think—I think; I need to fire my father." Cleveland was a fresh start and maybe Coach Beiste was right, maybe he did need to shed everything, even his father. He hadn't heard from him in weeks. Maybe he needed to _finally_ take a step forward.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: It seems that notifications for my stories and a few others aren't working fanfiction is broken again. Which sucks, I've updated How I met Your Mother, Hellfire, and this several times and nothing. I keep hoping that there will be a multitude of chapters in people's inbox's soon but I'm not going to hold my breath.**

* * *

Santana stormed off the elevator walking straight to Charlie's apartment and began to knock on the door, the magazine in her hand even though it was crumpled as she gripped it tighter, banging on his door. " _Charlie_." The door swung open and she noticed that her ex-husband was standing there in a pair of form-fitting boxers rubbing his eye as he stared at her. "What the _hell_ is this?" She shoved the magazine against his chest.

Charlie blinked and grabbed the paper, against his chest. He glanced at the magazine, uncrumpling it slowly as he studied the cover. "It's a magazine," Charlie replied finally. His hazel eyes flicking to Santana, he studies her for a minute before leaning out of his door to see if the kids were around. He frowns when he doesn't see them and instead leans back. "Well if that's all—"

"We have _kids_ together; they don't need to see you _making out_ with whichever girl is flavor of the week for you. What were you thinking? What do you think Bela is going to think that's her favorite artist? Or Max? He still thinks that you're eventually going to move back in. This is unacceptable."

"Dani and I are just friends—"

"Is that what you're calling it now? Your tongue is down her throat!"

"You're exaggerating. There wasn't any tongue," Charlie responds tossing the paper onto his coffee table. He scratches his cheek, running his fingers along his scruff. It wasn't like he had planned for this to happen and it wasn't as if he was going to tell Santana that he got rejected because Dani was under the opinion that Santana was more attractive than he was. She was, but that was beside the point. "Look, I'll talk to the kids if that's what you're worried about."

"And tell them what?" Santana snaps. "That they should expect the next sex tape out in a few weeks? Do you need to get the lighting and music right?"

"No! Fuck Santana, it was just a kiss and _you_ divorced me. You ended our relationship—"

" _No_ ," Santana said poking him on his chest hard. She wasn't going to let him twist this into it being _her_ fault. She had made the right decision. "You _ended it_ the moment you cheated on me. Then, _because_ you just couldn't _help_ yourself, _released a video_ of you in bed with another woman, while I was at home pregnant with your kid. So don't you _dare_ try and shift the blame on me. You _ended_ this relationship the moment you got accused of _rape_ , because Charlie the _superstar_ couldn't keep it in his pants. Cause he liked to star in his _own_ little pornos."

"For _fucks sake_ it wasn't like that—"

"Then what the fuck was it Charlie?" Santana rants furiously. " _Clearly_ our family didn't mean that much to you. You can't even get your head out of your father's ass long enough to _fight_ for me."

"Fight for you? _Everything_ I have done has been to fight for you, but it's never going to be good enough is it?"

"Not when our kids are some token achievement that you can put in an hour a day and call it good." Santana scoffs.

"My family means _everything_ to me. _Everything_. You think I don't want to spend more time with the kids? To fix my broken relationship with _my_ daughter? Bela fucking hates me and I don't know how to fix it. Max calls me every night and begs me to come home. Let's not even begin to talk about CJ. He doesn't even know that I'm his father. He doesn't even _like_ me, I'm a stranger that watches him sometimes. Hell he won't even let me change his diapers. Every time I want to spend time with them you say no and tell me that I need to schedule it."

"Because the kids need _structure_. You think I _want_ to say no? But you can't get it through your damn skull that Bela has soccer on Thursday nights and Max has a standard play date every Wednesday. They're _finally_ starting to make friends and settle in."

"Right." Charlie scoffs with disbelief.

"Bela hates everything right now and I can't just drop everything because you got out of practice an hour early. You know what isn't fair? The fact that you _consistently_ make me be the bad guy."

"The bad guy? Are you kidding me? I'm the bad guy in this. You didn't even let me have a say in naming my son."

"Well you weren't there for the birth, so of course you don't get a say. You weren't there—"

"You handed me divorce papers!" Charlie shouted angrily. "I wasn't there because you handed me divorce papers. You refused to pick up the phone every time I called whenever I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I would have been there for every goddamn doctor's appointment, every time you needed some junk food. I would have left the game early if you had just called me. You refused to talk to me, to involve me at all."

"You _cheated_." Santana snaps back at him. "You don't get to decide anything anymore. God I wasn't even sure if I wanted CJ after I found out what you did."

Charlie stops and stares at Santana. "What?" Santana stares back not saying anything, breathing deeply. "You wanted to—" His rage bubbles to the surface and he grabs her shoulders his fingers into her arm. "You wanted to _kill_ him? To punish me?"

Santana frowns, he's not hurting her but it's the first time he's gotten physical with her and she shoves him back a bit. "No you _dumbass_ , this wasn't all about you."

"Fuck yes it was. CJ is _my_ son."

"And _I_ am his _mother_." Santana retorts, pushing him again until his back was up against the wall. " _I_ wasn't sure if I was willing to put my body and my health through hell just to be a single mother with an asshole ex-husband that would flit in and out of our lives whenever it suited him."

"Flit in and out? I don't have a normal job Santana. I have to go on the road, I chose this to help support _our_ family, our kids have everything that they could ever want. They have _never_ had to go to bed hungry or worry if there was going to be a roof over their heads. They got to a private school which, _I'm_ paying for. I was there and I was present for years. I moved to Cleveland the moment I could so I could be closer to my family, to you and the kids. How much more do I have to do to show you that I'm willing to be there for our family? How are you going to forget everything I've done for this family?"

Santana leans forward, having every intention of slapping him or snarling some vicious cutting comment. But Charlie's so close to her and she acts before she can really stop herself, pressing her lips against his. She feels him lock up for a moment, maybe in surprise but it's only a second until he's kissing her back hard. There's a strong part of her that is _revolted_ by what she's doing. He had cheated on her, he had humiliated her and she felt pathetic for missing him for wanting him, for getting jealous over a stupid photo, but it had been more than a year since they had been close and she misses him more than she can say.

He grips Santana's shoulders tightly as he pushes her against the door to his apartment, she couldn't just barge in here and start yelling at him over photos that meant nothing. Everything that she had said to him had cut him, had hurt him in ways that he hadn't before. How could she ever consider it? He knew that he had hurt her but for her to even let that cross her mind? It chilled him to the bone. Yet he didn't know how to stop, to shove her out of his apartment because _this,_ this was what he wanted. He wanted his wife back, he wanted her to forgive him and let him come back home. It may have been his fault, but she had cut him just as deeply and he wasn't sure where to go from here. That didn't stop him from touching her from feeling her _need_ for him.

He wasn't gentle with her, he was angry and hurt and he wasn't in the mood to be gentle. That didn't stop Santana's body from responding, and she wasn't just a recipient letting him do whatever he wished. She was just as combative, biting and scratching him in return. She had most definitely drawn blood and he had most certainly given her a few bruises and they would both certainly be feeling it tomorrow.

~O~

" _Mom!_ Guess what I did today?" Max yelled the moment he got inside, running into the house to go find his mother. He frowned when he didn't get an answer right away and began to run looking in various rooms to find her. " _Mom!_ "

"Stop _yelling_ ," Bela snapped at him angrily moving to plug her ears with her headphones. The last thing she needed was Max waking CJ up from his nap.

Max frowned at her but continued to open and close doors, until he decided to try his mom's bedroom frowning slightly when it was locked. He pounded on the door loudly. " _Mom_?"

Bela narrows her eyes, frowning. Her mom is almost fanatic at 'being available for them' since the divorce and she _never_ locked her door. She puts her hand on Max's shoulder and pushes him gently to the side, knocking a little more softly. "Mom? Are you okay?"

They hear a bang and then the sound of a drawer opening and shutting just as quickly. "Hey." Santana sniffs, plastering on the brightest smile she could muster as she opens the door. "I'm going to make dinner in just about an hour."

Max glances at Bela for a second before moving to his mom and wrapping his arms around her. "Why are you crying mommy?" He asks quietly.

Santana swallows the lump in her throat as she flicks her eyes to Bela who looks just as shocked as Max does. "I'm _fine_ , I just—I had a bad day today." Santana admits after a second wiping her eyes as best as she can. It does nothing for the puffiness and feeling Max's arms wrapped around her waist only makes her want to break down further.

Bela frowned touching her mom's shoulder gently, "Did dad do something to make you upset?" Sure she had been testing her mother as of late but she had never made her mom cry before, and she certainly hadn't done anything that major as of late. She certainly hadn't shown her mom her report card, which was a disaster. So the only other option was that Charlie had done something to make her mother upset.

Max crinkled his nose, "Did dad make a mess again?" He loved his dad but he was the worst when it came to cleaning up messes.

Santana feels tears burn at her eyes. None of this is Charlie's fault, no matter how much she wishes she could blame him. She's such a fucking hypocrite and she wishes she could just take it all back. "No." Her voice catches and she's pretty sure that neither of her kids believe it. "No I just had a bad day. We're fine, I promise."

Bela watches her skeptically, "When you say you're fine—does that mean he's coming back home?"

Santana swallows, studying her daughter. "No. Your father and I aren't getting back together." She wasn't going to call him in need even though she wanted to. She had spent a year and a half getting over her ex, she certainly wasn't going to call him _now_. Not when he was angry with her, not when he didn't really want anything to do with her.

Max frowned slightly, "Why was your day bad?"

Bela nods, "What he said. Did something happen?"

"No, I just got some bad news today and I realized, that there are times when I really miss having your dad around."

"Well we can call him and he come visit right?" Max asked trying to be helpful as Bela frowned.

"Bad news? Like—are you going to die?"

Max's eyes widened and immediately he felt his mother's hand running through his hair. "Mommy?"

"Nothing like that. Just some bad news, it's—work related. And no we don't need to call your dad, I'm _fine_. I will be fine."

"Daddy can fix it." Max promised. His dad _always_ made bad things better, that's why they should call him.

Santana smiles sadly. "Maybe, but I don't think he wants to fix it. And even if he does, I don't think he knows how."

Max puffed out his cheeks, he knew his dad could fix it.

Santana rubs at her eyes and forces a smile onto her face, "Where is CJ?"

"Tina put him down in his crib," Bela responds simply still giving her mother a scrutinizing look. There was something that she wasn't telling them, and she wanted to know what it was. "Does this have anything to do with dad being on the front cover of the tabloids again?" When Santana gives her a look she shrugs. "My friends wanted to know if he could get us into a Dani Harper concert, all her tickets were sold out in a few minutes. What's the point of having a famous dad if he can't you into sold out concerts?"

"You know I don't like you guys looking at that stuff," Santana muttered as she headed to check on CJ, he rarely stayed asleep for long when Tina put him down and if she didn't get to him before he woke up, he'd get bored and try and break out of his crib. "And no it has nothing to do with the tabloids. We— _talked_ about it." If you could call what they had done talking. She swallowed, trying not to think about it. It wasn't as if they hadn't had rough sex before but it had never been like that. He'd always just hold her afterwards and kiss her and everything felt like it was going to be fine. That hadn't been the case this time. She knew he was upset, he was angry and hurt but she had never felt _cheap_ before. He had treated her like an affair. "We talked about it, he's going to try and keep his private life a bit more private or at least give me the heads up before it shows up on the internet or the tabloids."

"So he's _not_ dating Dani Harper?"

"I don't actually know what your dad is doing Bela, if you want to know about his love life ask him. But he does know her, and maybe if you ask him he'll get you an autograph or something," Santana responded testily as she rubbed CJ's back her son hadn't gotten rid of his pacifier yet. She exhales slowly, calming herself down before looking at Max who looked a bit disappointed. "Now what did you want to tell me Maxie?"

Max blinked tearing his eyes away from his mom for a moment, "I wanted to sign up for basketball, just like dad," he says slowly.

Santana nods. "Well, let me see the forms and we'll see what we can do alright?"

"Do you think dad will come watch my games?"

"I think your dad will try his hardest to come watch you play, even if you don't see him," Santana tapped Max's nose and ruffled his hair. Charlie had mastered hanging back and out of sight, so he could watch his kids play without being harassed by parents who wanted to get his advice or take pictures with him. He just wanted to watch his kids play, and Max had unfortunately picked a sport which he was terrible in. "Go wash up Max and start your homework, I'll be down soon to start dinner alright?"

Bela watches as Max gives their mom another quick hug before heading out before turning to her mom again. "You sure it has nothing to do with him?"

Santana flicks her eyes towards her daughter, it was odd to have Bela acting like a normal person again and showing empathy. "Bela, I'm fine and it had nothing to do with your dad making out with your favorite artist." Bela looks like she's about to argue and Santana holds up her hand. "I'm fine, I'm tired but I'm fine. So why don't we save the talk about how you've let your grades slip until _after_ I talk to your teachers?"

Bela's mouth snapped shut at this, she hadn't shown her mom her report card. "How—"

"Your school has a website that allows the parents to log in and find out what's going on in their kids lives, and they send emails about _everything_. So even though I assume that you've burned the thing and have no intention of telling me it's unfortunate for you I've already seen it. We'll talk about it later. I can only deal with one disaster today," She pulls up beside Bela and kisses her cheek. "We'll talk about it later alright?"

"Fine," she mumbles.

Santana nods and pats Bela on her shoulder gently, "Can you make sure CJ doesn't attempt to kill himself by crawling out of his crib when he wakes up? I need to go wash my face."

"Yeah, I can watch him for a few minutes," Bela said with a shrug, a suspicious look still on her face. Her mom _never_ just dropped it, she was tempted to simply call Charlie and find out exactly what he had done this time. Having her friends drool over him was _gross_ and humiliating.

"That's all I need," Santana promises as she heads back to her room closing the door as she moves to her dresser and opens a drawer and pulls out the letter that Brittany had shipped to her. _Indetigene DNA services_ was written on the front of the envelope. She had been right to never look, and now she had opened the Pandora's box. Now she knew for a certainty that Bela wasn't _his_. But she'd be damned if the information came out. She moves to her bathroom, grabbing the box of matches that she used for her scented candles and struck it, setting the document on fire. She certainly wasn't going to leave documents like this in one piece, and she wasn't going to tell anyone the results of the test. She'd just have to find some other way to manage her daughter.


	12. Chapter 12

Charlie drummed his fingers nervously on the table in front of him. He normally wasn't one who wasted his money on the fanciest restaurants in Cleveland, but he knew the score. Agents and managers would try and wine and dine him to get him to sign with them. It was part of the reason that he had chosen to keep his father close, he was terrible at seeing past the bluster and the promises.

He _needed_ this to go well. It made him feel a little uncomfortable to think of going behind his dad's back like this, but something had to change. Even if he wasn't certain that he wanted to go home.

"Alright, let's get this over with. I have thirty minutes and a hankering for lobster." A tall stern-looking woman in a tracksuit slipped into the seat across from him and snapped her fingers to grab the waitress's attention.

Charlie stutters through his own order and once they are alone again shakes his head to get his bearings. "Are you Sue?"

"Yes, and I don't have time for stupid questions. I know you and I know your past, so let's just get to the point: what is it that you want?"

Charlie stared at Sue unsure of what to make of her, for a moment. This wasn't how _any_ of his other meeting had gone. It was like he was the one being interviewed. "I want my own Nike shoe. I want my own line, I want to—"

"Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"Excuse me?" Charlie blinked surprised.

"That's _not_ going to happen. Nike is the pinnacle and I know they had their eye on you up until your little scandal. It doesn't matter how many MVPs you win, it certainly doesn't matter how many rings you bring home. You and Nike are _never_ _ever_ going to happen. Adidas will sign you but they'll never give you your own line. Both companies would have weathered the storm with you if you had already signed to them and had your own line already but they have very little to gain by signing you now."

"My other manager said I needed to wait—"

"Until you were an MVP?" Sue unfolds her napkin and lays in gingerly in her lap. "That's because your manager is your _father_ and he is a lazy asshole who rides on the coattails of your success. If he had actually been doing his _job_ you would have had a Nike contract three years ago and that scandalous video would have never leaked."

"What—?"

"Face it, you're in your thirteenth year in the league. Sponsors are looking for younger guys that they can get at cheaper rates and are willing to take the risk that they might not be the biggest name in basketball. We might be able to get an Under Armor deal, but even then we might have to fight for it since you only have probably another five or six years of playing time before you have to retire."

Charlie frowned and swallowed, what she was saying was making sense. "I've got one ring right now and two MVPs, and nine all-star game appearances. I have never been under the knife that has to mean _something_."

"You should have signed with Nike after your first All-Star appearance, you probably would have had your first shoe deal after your first finals appearance. Someone who knew what they were doing would have known that and would have struck while the iron was hot, but it's too late for that now. The good thing about Under Armor is that they _need_ more top players and they are willing to overlook the fact that you are a shit-show of drama."

"How do you know all this?" Charlie pressed immediately.

"Because I am the _best_ at what I do. Not only that, but I'm able to go out there and make deals happen. It's unfortunate that your father has been sloppy and waited for the licensing deals to come to him. But what's done is done and the only thing we can do is move forward." Sue explains just as their food comes out and is laid out against the table. "Frankly, I'm shocked you didn't fire his ass when he suggested that it would be a good idea to release the tape. That was career suicide."

"It wasn't him—" Charlie defends, but when Sue looks at him like he can't possibly be that naive, he gulps. "He wouldn't do that to me. I told him I didn't want that video leaked."

"My sources never lie; they are too afraid of what I might do to them." She disagrees. Sue frowns tilting her head, she really wasn't used to being surprised. Charlie had been accused of rape, and had walked away with an apology from the district attorney, a PR firm would have dealt with it quickly and effectively. Releasing the video had scared off the bigger sponsors. "You really didn't know?"

"No." Charlie sat back and tried to make sense of it. "Why would he do that?"

"Other than the fact that he's an asshole? Maybe he thought he could get you better deals with a bad-boy image instead of the family guy routine that you had going for you. regardless it was a stupid and asinine ploy that gave your wife no choice but to divorce you. Though I imagine it was that disgustingly, gaudy sports car that he bought. TMZ paid him a million dollars for that video."

"I'm going to kill him." Charlie growls.

Sue shrugs. "All that will do is get you in trouble with the law and you'll spend millions of dollars wasting your fortune on a defense and you might get off. If you ask me firing him and cutting him off when he's very close to the red will force him to take stalk of his life and punish him for his transgressions."

Charlie swallows, he had sacrificed everything because he had believed his father, and Santana wasn't going to take him back just because he realized what a stupid mistake that had been. "Okay, if I hire you—how are you going to market me?"

Sue looks him over critically. For a thirty-year-old he had an excellent body and face. "We diversify your portfolio with modeling, some commercials and guest appearances. I have a couple of advertisements that are ready to go as soon as you sign with me."

Charlie nods and takes a deep breath. Sue was the only person who had flat out told him that Nike would never happen and even though it sucked, he needed someone who could give him bad news. "Okay."

"But I'm guessing that your dad has screwed you over with your management agreement. What are we looking at?" Sue narrows her eyes. She would have preferred to review his contract word for word, but she hadn't managed to get her hands on it.

"He told me it was standard to have a one-year contract." Charlie shrugs. "There's no part of it that says it automatically renews and I have a week before I have to give him notice that we aren't renewing it." He declares, grateful again that Santana had made him read every single portion of his contract and explain it back to the team's legal advisors to make sure nothing could take them by surprise.

"Good." Sue declares. "Now for my fee. Sports agents aren't allowed to take more than 4% of the actual contract and 10-20% of outside endorsements. I'm going to ask for the maximum 4% but I'll only take 15% of endorsements." It's only fair, and if she brings in the amount of endorsements she plans to, her fee will make all of them a lot of money.

Charlie blinks, surprised. He'll actually be paying Sue far less than what he was paying his father and it only makes the pit in his stomach grow. "What do I have to do?"

"Give me a copy of your current contract to review all the ways your dear old Daddy might have screwed you over. If there's anything that I see, I'll deal with it and let you know."

Charlie nods, "I can do that," he nods pulling out his phone so he can send her the documentation.

"Once we've dealt with your old contract, I'll give you a copy of my contract. We'll start with a year as a trial period, and if you're impressed we can talk about signing a more long-term contract." Sue's watch beeps and she glances at it as she finishes her lobster. "Well, I'd stay for dessert but I do have things to do. Thanks for lunch, but I do have other potential clients to interview. It'll be good to work with you." Sue said as she dabbed her lips and got up. "We should do this again sometimes; it was impossible to get into this place without dropping your name."

Charlie blinked as he stared at where Sue had been, blinking she had ordered the most expensive thing on the menu and had paired it the most expensive wine too. He was torn between being amused at her antics or shocked and chagrined. The whole thing had felt like he was interviewing for a job. He holds his hand out for his waiter. With the money he was going to be saving he could certainly afford one insanely priced lunch.

~O~

Santana tugged at the bottom of her blouse as she walked up to the production van for her new show. HGTV had jumped at the chance to pair her with a remodeler contractor and were even willing to let her base the entire production out of Cleveland so that she wouldn't have to worry about being home in time for the kids. It was finally something to do in her spare time. It was a reality television show, but she wouldn't have to worry about being back-stabbed or unnecessary drama. Sure there would probably be some surprises but it would be nothing like nearly getting into a fight on television. Sure HGTV hoped that she could bring in some star power with Charlie but they had wanted _her_ designs and if the show did well, maybe she could start expanding her business in Cleveland. It was nothing like LA where there were millions of people who wanted her expertise and were willing to pay a premium to get it.

Today was the day she was finally meeting the contractor she was going to be working with. The show had kept it pretty low key and she was aware that this wasn't the norm. She wasn't a huge fan of surprises but if this was what it took to get her foot in the business again in _Cleveland_ of all places then she was willing to do it. She knocks on the door to the van, wary of the cameras following her. She'd done this before on Basketball Wives and it wasn't something you ever got used to.

A blonde man pokes his head out of the trailer door, looking more like he belonged on the beach of California than on a construction site in Ohio. "Hi Santana! Are you ready to get started?"

"Trouty Mouth?" Santana blinks stepping back as her face breaks into a wide grin. Sam had been great friends with Charlie back in high school but she hadn't seen him since.

Sam rolls his eyes playfully. "Nice to see you too Santana." He doesn't pay any mind to the cameras and pulls Santana into a warm tight hug.

After a minute Santana pushes him away, "You're who I'm working with?" She narrows her eyes. "Are you any good?"

"Better at construction than I was at basketball, that's for sure." Sam teases.

"Well that's not exactly hard. If I remember right, you were best known for scoring points for the other team." Santana teases smirking when Sam's cheeks go a bit pink.

"One time!" Sam whines dramatically. It had happened once and no one had ever let him forget it. He shrugs it off, he really was a better football player. He huffs as if his pride was wounded and it was, no one ever let him forget it. "As fun as reminiscing about high school was, I am actually a successful contractor in Cleveland. The show thought it would be a good idea to put us together. It's actually my first time being on camera. I lost ten pounds and everything."

Santana laughs, "You'll forget they're there, which means you'll do a lot of stupid stuff on camera. It's always good for a good blooper reel. Maybe at the end of the show or something, during credits. Makes us seem more approachable."

"What's more approachable then coming back to your home state and giving back to the community? You know you're probably going to be the biggest celebrity most of these people ever meet," Sam points out with a shrug.

Santana rolls her eyes, "I moved out of LA for a reason and you know what? Getting my hands dirty again might be fun." She didn't want to be seen as someone who was unapproachable. "So has HGTV already decided on the houses that we were renovating?"

"They have, we're doing five houses in about ten weeks. Insane right? That's the first season anyway, if the show does well we'll be able to hire a bigger crew." Sam informs her. "You know though with your name attached to it we were able to get a lot more stuff that we can give to these people. Appliances, flooring, carpets have all been donated, it's barely costing HGTV anything so long as you give a small shout out to the companies of course and maybe make an appearance or two."

"And they don't expect Charlie to show up?" It was a surprise, even on basketball wives, Charlie had to make an appearance every now and again to remind people that she was married to a basketball player.

"Well no, everyone agrees that the most important thing that he should be focusing on right now is bringing home a championship. And my business would be ruined if he got hurt on one of my worksites."

"There's a _but_ involved," Santana winces.

Sam sighs feeling a bit guilty. "I know it must suck after what he did to you but there's a kid who is the biggest Cav's fan ever. He doesn't have to meet Charlie or anything, but maybe a signed shirt or a ball you know something that he'll never forget?"

Santana makes a face at this, she doesn't want Charlie's hands anywhere near this. She doesn't want people to keep saying that she was riding on his coat tails or that she was a gold digger. "I'll talk to him."

"It's just _one_ home and it's the one I scheduled for the end of the season. So you don't have to rush it or anything. Even something little would be fine."

Santana smiles, "It's fine, I promise. It's just hard." She shakes her head, vowing to get to work. "So show me the properties."

Sam nods and pulls out the binder that has detailed pictures of each house slated for this season. The film crew might already be following them, but this was a production meeting more than anything. This was the beginning of the rest of her life and she wasn't about to let it turn into a disaster like everything else had.


	13. Chapter 13

Santana kept her eyes shut and pulled one of her large king-sized pillows against her chest in a futile attempt to fall back asleep. Her phone had already buzzed several times in the last few minutes but it was a Saturday and Tina was here to watch the kids so she'd be damned if she woke up for anything other than her house being on fire.

Her phone buzzed again and without looking Santana picks it up and turns off the offending device. There. If anyone actually needed her they could figure it out for themselves. She feels herself start to relax as everything falls quiet once more.

" _Mom!_ " Bela shouts, storming into Santana's bedroom and slamming the door so loudly that some of the pictures on the wall rattle. " _Mom!_ He's ruining my _life_!"

Santana groans wanting to throw a pillow at her daughter. She was clearly being over dramatic again and this was her time to sleep in. She used to be able to, she had never been much of an early riser, so Charlie had done it. He had always needed to be heading to practice or some business thing or another. "Bela—"

"He's _ruining_ my life," Bela repeats shoving her phone in her mother's face so she could see the horrors that Charlie had inflicted on her. "I don't want to see him in his _underwear_! It's _everywhere_ how can I go to school now?"

Santana popped an eye open and shuffled back a bit her eyes still blurry. "You don't want to see who in his—is that your _father_?" She nearly rolls out of bed at it, a picture of her ex-husband standing in only a pair of boxers against a backdrop, in his attempt to look sexy was staring her in the face. She had to admit he did sort of look sexy. "Where the hell did you get that? Why are you _looking_ for stuff like that?"

"I _wasn't_. That's the point. Everyone I know is going to see this. Is he trying to ruin my life?" Bela groans, flopping against Santana's bed dramatically. "Do you know what my friends say about him?"

"No and I don't think I want to—"

"They think he's a _Dilf_."

"That's disturbing because they're what 12? You need new friends Bela," Santana responds absentmindedly staring at the picture. Her fingers move of their own accord and she finds herself zooming in on his taut abs and tracing her finger over them gingerly.

"I _need_ my dad to grow up and be a normal dad and watch football or drink beer or something. Not show everybody his _underwear_. This is why I don't want him coming to my soccer games."

"Does that mean I don't have to wear pants ever again?" Max pipes up from the doorway as he begins to work on his pants.

"See!" Bela pointed to Max. "He's making Max weirder and letting him think it's appropriate!"

"You still have to wear pants outside the house Max," Santana informs watching as he groans.

"But daddy gets to take pictures in his underwear," he grumbles moving towards the bed so he can curl up with his mom.

"Your dad's a weirdo, I thought we knew this already." Santana points out before slowly zooming out and handing the phone back to Bela. "If you're upset with your dad yell at him. Don't yell at me. I didn't tell him to go and do this." Santana points out picking up her phone to turn it back on. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about this little display from her ex. Was he trying to tell the world he was available? And even though she didn't quite like the scruff on his face or the semi-long hair that he had been sporting lately, she knew that other women would like it. He couldn't be thinking of becoming some sort of sex symbol. "Twenty missed calls from your aunt Quinn." Santana groaned it was going to be a long day. She moves to call her sister in law back when a call from Quinn comes through. "Speak of the devil," she mutters answering the call. "Quinn—"

' _So, here I am enjoying my morning cup of coffee with my beautiful wife. Maybe just maybe I wanted to have sex with her this morning you know with the blinds open, cause that's kinky_ —'

"Do I need to tell Britt to pick you up a how-to book? Because that's not exactly what I think about when you use that word. And yes I have my children in front of me." Santana drawled, not caring if she interrupted Quinn. She had an idea where this conversation was going and she wasn't amused.

 _'_ _Whatever, so here I am with my morning cup of coffee and Rachel in something that leaves very little to the imagination. A quick romp before work, with the blinds open. No big deal we've done it a million times. So the question is why the fuck is there a billboard with my brother in his underwear outside my goddamn window ruining my skyline? I gagged, no one wants to see Charlie with a fucking sock down his underwear trying to pretend that he actually has_ _a package_.'

Santana reached for Bela's phone snatching it back and unlocking it so she could inspect it carefully. She zooms in and squints for a moment, "No, no there is no sock involved. That what he normally looks like when he walks around in boxers like that."

There was a moment of silence on the phone and even though she was in Ohio she could _hear_ Quinn shudder and suddenly there was a rustling sound. ' _I think you broke her Santana_.'

"Just what I needed this morning, pictures of my ex in his underwear and talking to a hobbit this early in the morning. It's like _Christmas_ except you know—I don't actually care. If you two are going to do it, do it with the blinds closed like normal everyday people. Or you know move. Moving works too. Now I'm going to go back to bed and attempt to sleep in. Goodbye Rachel, have a nice morning." With that she hung up and flopped back on her bed.

"Mom—they won't stop talking about him! They want to know when they can meet him. My life is _over_."

"Cut it with the melodrama Bela, your father decided to model some underwear it's _hardly_ the most offensive thing he's done. If it makes you feel better lie to yourself and say that they're swim trunks. You've seen him in swim trunks before. Problem solved, and _no_ Max you can't take pictures of yourself trying to be like your father." Santana shakes her head. "Why don't you both go talk to your father, he's probably in a team meeting right now but I'm sure he'll _love_ to hear your opinion. So go pester Tina for some food."

Bela huffs but slides off the bed, too caught up in her own fury to notice Max trailing off behind her, shedding his pants as he ran.

~O~

"You _had_ to be stuffing." Dani points her spoon at Charlie before digging into her pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Charlie shook his head quickly. He had felt dumb enough trying to look sexy in his underwear while dozens of people were scattered around the set. Now his teammates were teasing him too and he had already passed two billboards of that awkward campaign. "I swear, no stuffing at all." His phone buzzed again and he winced looking at it. "Either someone's called to make fun of me, or my eldest is pissed off at me and wants to rip into me. I figure I can avoid her for a few days and talk to her when it blows over. Both my sisters have already called to yell at me." It was about the only positive thing about living in separate places, he could avoid his children a lot easier. The thought made him feel a bit guilty.

Dani smirked at this and poked his side playfully, "You picked up?"

"No, I listened to three seconds of a voicemail," Charlie grumbled. "I didn't think it would be a national campaign, just a few ads in a few magazines, no big deal. Not _billboards_." Charlie groaned. He was going to need to talk to Sue about it, though he was impressed at how quick they had put it up. Though he should have realized what he was getting into with that amount of money on the table. "The positive side is now I have a life-time supply of boxers."

Dani laughed, "You really need to start asking more questions when you sign things."

Charlie crinkled his nose, "That was sort of Santana's thing not mine and my agent's, I was supposed to focus on basketball. Santana helped me make decisions about my career but also helped me with the endorsements." Dani gets a dreamy look on her face that makes Charlie pick up a magazine and throw it at her. "Stop thinking about my wife like that."

"First, she's your _ex_ and second, she's _hot_." Dani counters. There's nothing hotter than a woman who can dissect legal contractual bullshit.

"She's the _mother_ of my kids, and she's already dating some asshole," Charlie grumbles frowning when there was a firm knock on the door. He gets up setting his ice cream down and fumbling to get to the door. He scratches his chin before opening the door.

Bela storms in and pushes past him, not even bothering to say hello. "Why are you ruining my life? You're so _gross._ "

"Hi Bela," Charlie scratches his head. "What are you doing here?" He holds the door open as Tina slinks in guiltily.

"She really wanted to see you." Tina explains apologetically, bouncing CJ in her arms. That's an understatement, but she's not about to tell _Charlie Fabray_ that his twelve-year-old had practically thrown a temper tantrum as soon as Santana had left the house to drop Max at basketball practice before her second production meeting.

Charlie moves to take his son who immediately starts to squirm in his arms. He sighs, this was normal behavior for his son and he puts CJ on his feet letting his son roam free as he begins to walk around exploring the place. "It's fine, I like seeing them." He turned to Bela half expecting her to continue ranting at him when he noticed that she was staring at Dani with her eyes wide.

"Hey!" Dani said taking more ice cream. "You're not a fan of your dad's underwear campaign too huh?"

Bela nodded quietly and shifted to turn and look at her dad, "Hi," she squeaks out and then moves to grab her dad pulling him along so she can have a conversation with him. "You didn't _tell_ me you were dating _Dani Harper!_ " She hisses.

"We're not dating, she's just my friend." Charlie responds with a sigh when Bela gives him a look of disbelief. He couldn't really blame her, Dani was eating ice cream in yoga pants and what amounted to a sports bra. "Seriously, she's just a friend."

"Your son is absolutely adorable!" Dani called out from where she was watching as CJ grabbed his father's tub of ice cream and began to stick his hands in it as he spat out his pacifier.

"Pup-pup," he said as he licked his hands.

Charlie tore his eyes off Bela and immediately headed to CJ. "Come on CJ, I know you know how to use a spoon."

"Pup-up," CJ repeated frowning at him. He jams his hands back into the ice cream and grabs a handful and stuffs it into his face.

Charlie blinks and bends down, well he had been worried that CJ never really said anything to him even though Max and Bela both insisted that he was talking. "Can you say dada?"

CJ stares at Charlie for a moment before shaking his head, "No."

"Come on CJ, say dada. I'm your daddy." He was promptly ignored as his son went back to making a mess of his ice cream. He sighs and pats him on the head before looking at Dani. "This is CJ, my youngest and that's Bela, she's a fan of yours."

" _Dad_."

" _Bela_." Charlie mimics.

"Oh, so you're the daughter that gets the five VIP tickets for my next concert." Dani greets warmly. "You'll have to tell me how you like it."

Bela blinks, "Dad?"

"That was supposed to be a surprise." Charlie glares at Dani.

Dani shrugs. "Woops." She's never been really good at keeping secrets.

"You got me tickets for her show?"

Charlie sighs but nods. "Yeah. I know your mid-terms haven't come out yet, but I wanted to reward you for all your hard work."

Bela winces at that, her mid-term report card had been out for a while and she had finally gotten the third degree from her mother about them. Not to mention her abuela and her abuelo. It would figure that her father didn't know about it, he'd never been really good with dates when it came to stuff like that. Her mom probably hadn't mentioned it to him since they weren't really talking to begin with. It was actually sort of brilliant in its own way and now she was beginning to understand why her friends with divorced parents thought she was super lucky. "Thanks dad," she mumbles.

He grins and pulls his daughter into a tight hug. Maybe Bela didn't really hate him as much as he thought she did. "No problem. Does it make up for the embarrassment of the underwear campaign?" He pouted playfully, hoping that at least one woman in his life would take pity on him.

"No. It's embarrassing, all my friends and their mothers want to meet you now they think you're a—you're a _Dilf."_

"A Dilf?" Charlie questions.

"A dad I'd like to—" Tina supplies sighing as CJ tips the ice cream over and uses the table to prop himself up his hands dripping chocolate ice cream everywhere.

"Thank you Tina," Charlie crinkles his nose. "You need new friends Bela."

"That's what mom said," Bela sighed and looks at Dani. "You didn't tell him to do it did you?"

"Me? Of course not, I'm here to make fun of him and eat all his ice cream." Dani supplies taking another bite of her ice cream.

Bela nods, that makes sense especially since her dad does have really great taste in ice cream. But she still can't quite believe it, she's _actually_ meeting Dani Harper. "Do you really have a tattoo?" She asks the first question that she can think of and winces, hoping it didn't make her sound like some dumb little kid.

But Dani nods brightly and gestures for Bela to sit beside her. Charlie smirks as Bela starts talking animatedly with her favorite artist and feels a rush of pride at being the cool dad for once.

~O~

Santana fought the urge to groan. This stupid underwear campaign was almost worse than the sex tape for how much it was disrupting her life. She had thought she would be able to have a nice dinner at Sebastian's loft with a little bit of cuddling and maybe even some making out before she would need to leave. Instead, Sebastian had been stand-offish and there really could only be one cause. "Is this about the underwear campaign?"

"Of _course_ it's about the underwear campaign."

"I don't see what the big deal is. He's my ex-husband. Yes, he's the father of my kids. But it's not as if I'm wanking off to a billboard outside of my house."

"I'm lucky if I have five minutes to sit down and relax, let alone make it to the gym. You can teach muscle _anatomy_ on his body."

Santana snorts this was the first time she had ever seen a guy getting weird about his body. Now Sebastian had an idea of how she felt when she was bombarded with images of what was considered beautiful. "He's an athlete Sebastian. He spends most of his day working out at the gym, and if it makes you feel better I'm sure they photo-shopped some of it. They always do."

Sebastian shrugged, "I don't know, like I'm hot and even though I don't go to the gym I don't look _awful_ naked but I mean _come on_."

Santana can't help but laugh at Sebastian's plight, relaxing it was nice that he wasn't a complete ass all the time and he was willing to show her his vulnerable side. "You probably look perfectly fine naked Sebastian, I know it must be difficult, but I'm not ready to take that step yet—"

"I'm not trying to pressure you," Sebastian insists immediately.

"I know, I'm saying that I'm not ready to take that step now, but I think I'll be ready soon, maybe when I have a bit of time to think. This show is literally kicking my ass and the kids aren't easy either. I'm not going to compare you to my ex-husband."

"Bullshit." Sebastian scoffs, but his smirk lets Santana know he is mostly teasing. "Everyone compares. You can't sleep with someone and _not_ compare me to your picture perfect ex-husband."

"Well if looks were everything, I wouldn't have divorced him." Santana reasons.

Sebastian smirks sympathetically. "I don't know if that's supposed to make me feel better."

"Did it?"

"A little." He admits, his shoulders softening under the relieved weight of her expectations. He was a doctor and a damn good one and it felt weird to suddenly be feeling so insecure. Santana was fun and interesting and witty and he wasn't sure why he felt threatened by some magazine spread. He had probably stuffed his underwear or they had done some nifty trick with Photoshop. "So want to tell me about your show?"

Santana groans but there's a smile on her face. "It's awesome, Sam really can build anything you know, so if I have this idea for something like in one house, the kid is really into fish so we're putting in this tank unit that's sort of built into the wall. I sort of drew it out and Sam and his guys made this smaller version so I can see it. Like even though it's my vision, Sam is a genius when it came to that stuff. Terrible basketball player, but he's good at that sort of thing. Upper management is already pleased with the footage so far and it seems to be testing well. There will probably be a second season." It felt _good_ to not be just be seen as Charlie's wife. She hadn't realized it until now, but that's what her entire life had been about just being his wife and a mother but now she was showing everyone that she could do anything.


	14. Chapter 14

Charlie pulled out his earbuds as he continued to towel himself off as he stepped off the elevator rotating his arm slowly, he was due for a nice warm shower before he made himself a light dinner and getting a massage. With the season finally starting he needed to make sure that his body was taken care of. The team was paying for all his expenses when it came to that, he had appointments with personal trainers and a masseuse that made house calls. He glanced at his watch, all the data from his work out would be sent to the team's trainers to make sure that there was nothing he needed to be worried about.

" _Charles_."

Charlie's eyes flew from his watch to look at his father and frowned wondering how his father had gotten past his security. He'd have to call the property manager to have a talk with him about it. He straightened up to look his father in the eye. "I have nothing to say to you." Charlie said as he fished his hands in his pocket to pull out his keys.

If Russell was surprised that Charlie was brushing him off, he didn't let it show in his face as he crossed his arms over his chest. "When did you sign with Under Armor?"

"The moment my contract with you expired. Well that's not true, the moment that I signed a new contract with another agent. She presented me with an Under Armor contract, before the ink had dried, for their clothing line. They're testing the waters to sign me for my own shoe. It's not Nike and they aren't going to pay me Nike numbers but my agent's sure that they are going to cough up a lot of money for me to _only_ wear their shoes." Sue had put a number on the table in front of him and he had been sure that she had added one to many zeros, and the number hadn't included royalties. Things were already moving fast, and he hadn't regretted signing Sue Sylvester to be his agent, even if every time they did meet at a fancy restaurant he ended up footing what was usually an expensive bill.

"What do you mean _expired_?" Russell furrows his brow dramatically. He hadn't thought Charlie ever read his contract to know when the re-signing period was. He had been planning on making the flight to this god-forsaken hell-hole to present Charlie with a contract that would have given him a quarter of Charlie's current endorsements plus royalties. He had even bought a new car to celebrate. But even though his moronic son was on the brink of causing a disaster, he was sure he could handle this. "I'm your _father_ and I've been with you since the beginning. I'm sorry if you felt like you had to go to someone else, but I can still help you manage your career and public persona. Together Charles, we can make you into the biggest name since Michael Jordan."

Charlie stared at his father blankly unimpressed with his sale pitch. "You know that bullshit might have worked when I was 19 and fucking terrified of making a mistake and trusting in the wrong people and losing my fortune. God I was so _fucking stupid_. I knew you were a shitty father, and a fucking shitty husband too, but I thought—I honest to god thought that you'd change and you'd finally start acting like a father and you'd protect me. I made excuse after excuse for you, I ignored how you treated Quinn and _mom_ because I was your damn favorite and you were giving me the attention I craved from you. But I'm not nineteen, and I did make a mistake I _trusted_ you."

"I only wanted what was best for you." Russell frowned, honestly surprised at the direction this was taking.

"So that's why you sold my fucking sex tape to TMZ?"

Russell groans internally, wondering who possibly could have told Charlie about that. His son wasn't smart enough to have figured that out on their own. "I did what I thought would be best for your image. People thought you were a _rapist._ We had to do something in order to do damage control or people would have been calling for you to _resign_."

"No. You cost me my fucking family. And the worst part is, that you don't even give a damn!" Charlie spits. He's done trying to play the perfect son.

"Don't give a damn? Of _course_ I care about your personal life. I just want you to be the best that you can be. That's what a manager does. We make the tough calls to steer your career—"

"Tough calls? If that's what you call a tough call. Then it's a good thing that you're _fired_. I don't want you anywhere _near_ my professional career. You can be my father—actually—no. I don't even want that. I want you to stay the hell away from me." Charlie snaps, he wants to punch him but the last thing he needed was a broken hand this early into the season.

"Son—"

"Don't _son_ me. Just leave, so we're clear you're banned from the arena. And if you don't leave I'm calling the cops and I'll have my new agent look into slapping you with a restraining order. Stay the hell out of my life and enjoy all your _stuff_ , clearly all that _shit_ is more important to you than your own son is." Charlie shoved his father away from the front of his door and opened it before stepping inside and slamming the door closed in his face. He seriously doubted it was the last he'd hear from his father but at this point, he didn't care. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Santana was never going to take him back, even if he had fired his father but at least now his plate was clean.

Russell stared at the door, his temper flaring at the disrespect that Charlie had shown him, "You think _this_ is helping your _fucking_ image? You with your fucking long-hair and modelling some fucking underwear like a _fag_? You're a fucking laughing stock in the NBA, a fucking joke. You think Nike will sign you now?"

It's enough to get him to open his door and step to his father, he had been taller than Russell for _years_ now, and it felt good to have him take a step back. "You and I both know that Nike was never going to sign me. So if you think you can hold that over my head then I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not some snot nosed little kid that will believe whatever the hell you tell him. Now _leave_ , cause if you're not gone in thirty seconds I'm calling the fucking cops."

~O~

Sebastian opens the door to his apartment, smiling wide as he ushers Santana inside. He had been pretty surprised to get her text that she was finally ready to take the step. Personally he had no idea what had brought this on, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Things had been quiet as of late on the ex-husband front, she had gotten into the groove at work, even if it did require long hours normally, and as far as he knew the kids hadn't been driving her as crazy as they normally did. And even though she had said she didn't care, the few weeks had given him a bit of time to start working out. _Everyone_ compared and he wasn't going to be outdone by some _meathead_ jock that had blown what was probably the best thing to ever happen to him. "Hey there."

Santana pressed her lips against his, silencing him. She wasn't here to waste time by talking about it. For the first time in what felt like forever, she felt like she was in control. She didn't feel guilty; she certainly didn't feel like she had anything to be apologetic for. Bela may be having problems in school but her attitude wasn't nearly as toxic as it could have been. Having Tina shuttling the kids between the two of them, meant that she rarely had to pick up the phone to talk to Charlie. She hadn't had a conversation with him since she had confronted him, plus it was simple to ignore the television when Max decided to watch his father play. It was also easy to ignore the tabloids when she went grocery shopping for food, she didn't care if Charlie and Dani had been together while he was in LA for a weekend. If her ex-husband could enjoy himself while pretending that they were just friends, then she was certainly going to have some fun and Sebastian had been patient and what's more he was nothing like her ex. He didn't even look like Charlie, and she was glad to get away from that. "Less words," she orders enjoying the thrill of power that she had over him.

Sebastian groaned letting her push him onto his couch, his hands moving on their own as he rests them on her hips. This already felt like it was worth the wait, Santana was hot, he was hot and this seemed to be the right time as her hips moved grinding against his rapidly hardening member. He hated to admit that he had seen Charlie in action, after seeing massive billboards of Charlie all over the place he had looked him up. The sex tape hadn't been the best quality but he had wanted to make sure that he knew what he was getting into. He hadn't been that impressed, Santana had probably never had decent foreplay if the sex tape was anything to go on. He leans forward kissing her again his hands trailing over her hips and onto her sides as he just touches her. He was going to make this memorable for her.

It's hard to _not_ compare the two of them, the first time she had been with Charlie he had been clumsy and hadn't known what to do. But she had loved him and she had taught him everything he needed to know about her body. Practice had made him a bit of an expert on her body and every now and again he'd surprise her. But Sebastian was different, he didn't need a guidebook or someone to hold his hand and lead him through the motions.

She cringes inwardly as he kisses her again. She _shouldn't_ be thinking about Charlie or how Sebastian's hands were just a little too soft and their bodies didn't fit together nearly as well. Charlie certainly wasn't thinking about her. It wasn't as if Sebastian didn't know what he was doing and he was very good at it, but it _felt_ like the one-night stands that she had during university. She liked him just fine, but the connection wasn't strong enough, the goofy smile that Charlie got and the fact that he puffed out his chest like an idiot every time he managed to get her to orgasm. She missed it. She fucking missed him and it wasn't fair. Why couldn't she be like him and just not care?

She feels her orgasm starting to build as Sebastian continues to work on her body, his fingers and hips are working in tandem as he touches her, touching her breasts while his dick worked it's way inside her. She felt like a bitch for wishing it was Charlie, who was just flat out bigger and thicker than Sebastian was, but it wasn't about the size and Sebastian wasn't that much smaller than her ex-husband, and he certainly knew how to use it better.

~O~

Bela scratched the armrest of the chair outside the principal's office nervously, feeling glad that she had told the secretary to call her dad instead of her mom. Her mom would kill her, which was putting it mildly, her mom was going to make her life a living nightmare. With her dad coming instead of her mom she had a pretty good chance of escaping with very little consequences. "I'm sure he'll be here soon," she mumbled to the secretary who had spent the past half hour primping herself. Definitely the right decision to get her dad to come in.

Charlie bursts through the doors to the office in just gym shorts and a hoodie. When the office assistant had said he needed to pick Bela up because of bullying, he was certain that his poor daughter was a target. He had left practice early, and hadn't had time to shower, so he was still a bit of a mess. He rushes over to his daughter who wraps her arms around his waist in a quick hug. "Are you okay? I came as soon as I could. Next time I'll get a police escort; they love me here. Just need to give them free tickets—"

Bela groaned inwardly, this was a disaster. "I'm fine dad, I just got into a bit of trouble and mom's busy with her show. So I had them call you. It wasn't my fault! I promise it wasn't my fault!"

Charlie blinked and frowned this wasn't what he was expecting and he hugged his daughter, "Well, what happened?"

"Mr. Fabray." Another voice interrupts before Bela can try to explain, "Thank you for coming, we're honored to have you in our school. If you and Bela can follow me inside, we can discuss exactly what happened."

Charlie ushered his daughter to follow the principal and sat down beside her. "I'm happy to be here, but can you tell me what's going on?"

Mr. Figgins frowned trying to look as stern as possible, but he failed. This was an NBA superstar in front of him who knew the legal team he had behind him if he felt his daughter had been slighted in anyway shape or form, and he had thought that dealing with Bela's mother was bad. "Well, Mr. Fabray, your daughter was caught bullying another student. The teacher on duty _witnessed_ her dumping a slushy on another student."

Charlie blinks. He had been prepared to call for the other student's blood because he thought his daughter was the victim. That didn't sound like his daughter. "How do you know that was bullying? Maybe Bela just tripped?" He offered.

"Bela has been targeting this student before, and this is the first time a physical altercation happened. As it is, this school has a no tolerance stance on bullying. I'm afraid we're going to have to expel your daughter."

"Expel her?" Charlie startles. It doesn't matter if he believes this sniveling principal or not, but he _can't_ let Bela get expelled. "But she's a model student."

"Bela is already on academic probation and despite the clear path her mother worked out with her teachers, she hasn't made any attempt to bring up her grades."

Charlie paused caught unaware, this was the first time he was hearing about any academic probation, but he quickly gathers himself, he could deal with the fact that he knew nothing about his daughter's academic career later right now he needed to save her from being expelled. "I see, well that's a shame Mr—Figgins." Charlie said standing up to his full height. "Bella, can you take me to Max's classroom, let's pick him up. If you're expelling my daughter perhaps it's best to simply withdraw my son as well, if I'm to expect this sort of treatment from the administration. I'll be sure to inform my teammates with children, to think again about using this school."

Mr. Figgins paused and swallowed, the idea of having Charlie pull all his children out wasn't something that he had believed would happen. Most of the students came from wealthy parents, but Charlie Fabray was basically a hometown hero, there had been many phone calls from parents hoping that he could do an assembly or perhaps do some outreach through the school. "Now Mr. Fabray there's no reason to be so hasty, while your explanation is extremely plausible and this might just be a huge misunderstanding I'd like to think that we are _reasonable_ people here at Birchwood, since we can't be sure of intent I think it's best if we demote this to a simple three day in-school suspension."

"Are you—" Bela begins angrily; it wasn't fair that she was the only one getting targeted like this.

" _Isabela_." Charlie's voice cracked through the air like a whip causing his daughter's mouth to snap shut. He turns his attention back to Figgins, wondering what Santana would do. It would be so simple enough to throw money at the problem till it went away, but that's what his father would do and he didn't want his daughter thinking that it was the correct way to handle the situation. "I believe there should be consequences for any actions, however like I said this might have been an unfortunate accident. Which is why I suggest that we keep it to a one-day in-school suspension, if she's really behind then three days might be a bit too much. However, we will of course take care of getting this girl a new uniform to make up for this unfortunate accident."

Figgins was quiet, thinking about it, Charlie unlike many parents in this situation wasn't suggesting that his daughter not be punished, he also wasn't offering a bribe to keep his daughter in school, it was an interesting conundrum. An in-school suspension of the daughter of a star NBA player would send a message to all parents that he wasn't going to simply be easy on the children whose parents were rich and donated to the school. "I agree that does sound like a suitable punishment. Her in-school suspension will begin on Monday."

Charlie eyes Figgins carefully before smiling at him, "That sounds acceptable. Now if you'll excuse me, I do have a million appointments to get through today before I head out to San Antonio. Come on Bela, let's grab your things and I'll take you home."

Bela watched as her father walked out the office and quickly gets up and follows after watching him walk past the secretary without a glance. It's something he had probably picked up from her mom. But even she could see that he was annoyed, she just wasn't quite sure who it was directed at. "Dad?"

Charlie frowned and turned to his daughter. "What?"

"My lockers that way," Bela mumbled pointing in the opposite direction from where Charlie was heading.

"Right." Charlie turns so he can follow her, unsure on how to handle the situation. He's angry mostly at himself for not making sure that Bela had the support system she needed. But he hadn't known, Santana didn't talk to him about these things, and the idea that she was making unilateral decisions about _their_ kids was starting to get to him.

"Are you going to tell mom?" Bela asks as she approaches her locker, her shoulders slumping.

"Did you actually purposefully pour a drink on that kid?" Charlie asks narrowing his eyes when he sees Bela hesitate. "Bela don't lie to me."

"Yeah, but she was the one talking crap about me first. It's not my fault that I have more friends than she does, she _started_ it." Bela insists as she opens her locker. She was just jealous of her popularity or something.

"Then absolutely I'm going to tell your mom. I know that things have been difficult especially with the divorce but we didn't raise you to be a bully."

"I'm not a bully. I'm just showing her that I'm better than her because she's _weird_." Bela reasoned.

Charlie opens his mouth to object just as the bell rings and student's flood into the hallway. There are a gaggle of students that seem to recognize him instantly, swarming around Bela's locker like a flock of geese. Charlie grimaced as students began to touch him like he was Jesus and they were going to get cured for leprosy. He needed to be in the right mindset to deal with fans and right now wasn't the time, but he still managed to slap a grin onto his face. He holds his hands up. "I've got get ready to go to San Antonio, and I'm actually late. We need to keep our streak alive, so maybe next time I'll spend time signing autographs and taking photos."

Bela smirked as she patted her dad's arm, her eyes narrowing at a girl that had red slushy all over her. "Come on dad just a few pictures."

Charlie frowned, following his daughter's gaze. He was definitely reporting Bela to Santana, this wasn't the child that used to be just as nice as Max was and liked everyone. " _Bela_." He warned keeping his voice low. The last thing he needed was for this to show up on the internet. Perhaps he could arrange a meeting with Figgins and this girl's parents when this was all over.

"Fine, fine," Bela said grabbing her father's arm and helping him make his way through the throng of kids. "Look, he has to catch the private jet to San Antonio right now," Bela announced loudly. "We don't want to be known as the school that cost the city its current streak."

Charlie shook his head, he knew that Santana hated him and wanted nothing to do with him but Bela was _their_ daughter and he'd be damned if he let her continue to act like this. Entitled and spoiled, it was disappointing, and both he and Santana would need to talk about her behavior. "Bela—" Charlie paused he could hear the sound of pounding feet and at his height he could see it from a distance as his son rounded the corner a huge grin on his face.

"DAD!"

Charlie smiled as Max began to worm his way through the crowd before launching himself at him. Charlie sighed and braced himself for impact and he wasn't disappointed as his son crashed into him wrapping his arms around his legs. "And there's my Max," Charlie said with a shake of his head. His son was getting way too big for this, but at least someone was happy to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Max demanded, immediately grabbing his father's hand. "Shouldn't you be ready to go to San Antonio? Do you wanna see my classroom and meet my teacher?" He pauses for a moment and looks at his father. "Can you be my show and tell?"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "I'm not a thing to be shown off Max, and I'm here because Bela is—" Charlie looks at his daughter. "Sick."

Max turned to his sister for a moment, she looked perfectly fine to him. "Oh." He's quiet for a moment scratching his head before he coughs loudly and clutches his stomach. "Daddy, I don't feel well either."

Charlie groans, he was such a sap when it came to his kids. Santana was not going to be thrilled if he took Max out of school as well, but he sighs. It was already after lunch. "Fine go get your stuff. But if your mom asks then for the love of god Max you'd better do a better job of pretending you're sick then that." Max grins and immediately takes off to go get his things. "Don't forget your homework—eh he's gone. " Santana was definitely going to blame him for this. He could already feel a massive headache coming on.

~O~

Santana rubbed her brow, her hope that Bela was finally snapping out of her teenage rebellion phase had clearly been misguided and short-lived. As had her fragile peace with Charlie who was annoyed with her over the fact that she hadn't informed him that Bela was on academic probation. "You know what the worst part about this is Isabela? Your father isn't even angry at you. No, I have the pleasure of dealing with your irate father because you're the one who decided _not_ to decided to goof off instead of paying attention in class, and you're the one that decided to stop handing in her homework assignments."

Bela bit her lip tightly, as far as she understood her father's irritation, it was that he wasn't made aware of these things. She didn't for a moment think her father was blaming her for this. He had already said that he was disappointed with her and the moment that he came from his series of away games that they were still going to talk about it. "I've been doing my homework—"

Santana held up her hands, she was already irate with Charlie. He was barely present in their lives and yet he was criticizing her parenting? The last thing she wanted let alone needed was another custody battle. "I don't care about your grades, I'm angry at you because you nearly got expelled and instead of having me handle it you _hoped_ that you could manipulate your father into not telling me. I haven't even _begun_ to take apart the fact that you were _tormenting_ a classmate of yours."

"She _deserved it_. She needed to—"

"If I were you, I'd think carefully about your next words out of your mouth Isabela, because if there is one thing your father and I agree on is that we did not raise you to be an _entitled_ brat. Yes, your father has been spoiling the _three_ of you as of late but that has more to do with his guilt for not being around. You really messed up if your father is this irritated at you, normally he lets it go because you're his little princess and he's blind to most of your faults," Santana interrupts narrowing her eyes.

Bela stuck out her chin defiantly. "There's a hierarchy and she's—"

"Your aunts and I wrote the damn book on the hierarchy. I know all about the stupid caste system in high school so don't think that I'm going to give you a pass all because I know what it's like to be popular."

Bela scoffed at this, her dad was a star basketball player. She had witnessed people bending over backwards to accommodate him, much to his general chagrin. "You married dad, he was a basketball player—"

"Next time your grandmother comes to visit, remind me to get her to bring photos of your father in middle school when he was still a mathlete with terrible acne, and this god awful retainer. Despite what you and Max think, your father hasn't always been some Adonis. No he was a gigantic dork, who hung out with the weird kids who played card games during lunch. He was awkward and gangly, and a gigantic klutz, and he was _really_ weird." Santana responds crossing her arms over her chest. "I still said yes."

" _Why_?"

"Because despite his dorkiness, and his general awkwardness he was actually funny and sweet, and I fell in love with him. So all those girls that turned your father down, that made fun of him and picked on him because he wasn't the best dressed because he was a bit weird probably _regret_ it now. This girl that you're bullying could end up becoming the president, or a doctor or someone important later on in life, and even if she doesn't, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. You may think you're better than her because your father can buy you anything you want, but let me make one thing perfectly clear: you haven't earned shit. Everything you have is because of the work your father and I put in. So you're not better than her because of all the stuff that _your father and I_ own."

"She _started_ it by talking—"

"I don't care who started it. I care that my daughter thought it was perfectly acceptable to throw a slushy into another girl's face. So not only are you going to spend your entire day at school serving your in-school detention. We are going to go over to that girl's house and you are going to apologize to her parents and to her. We're also going to talk about your spending. As far as I'm concerned all that money you've been flashing around is gone. And while we're at it, you're _grounded_ for the next three weeks. Your laptop, your phone all the things that you hold dear are all going to be taken away from you."

Bela's jaw dropped, "You said that I needed a phone for—"

"Yes your father and I agree that you need a phone in case of emergencies, which is why I went out of my way to purchase this phone for you." Santana opened her purse and pushed a flip phone towards her daughter smirking when her eyes bugged out.

"What the hell is that?"

"It's a phone, that will allow me to know exactly where you are, it will only allow you to call the programmed numbers into it, and say goodbye to texting any of your friends." Santana slid the device across the table to her daughter. With a smirk she stands up sure her point has been made. "Don't for one second think that this is the end of your punishment. When your father gets back he already informed me bluntly that you and him are going to talk and he doesn't care if it's his time or not."


	15. Chapter 15

"I'd rather stay at home," Bela states plainly crossing her arms over her chest trying not to watch Max's feeble attempts to dribble the basketball. She had watched her brother play and he _really_ wasn't that good. "I thought I was grounded."

"You are. Which is why you're here," Santana admits plainly, leaving Bela at home would be giving her something that _she_ wanted to do and if she had to sit through a forty-minute basketball game where Max attempted to dunk just like his dad instead of actually playing the game of basketball. Honestly it seemed that Max had inherited his father's dorky side. Santana shifts a bit so she can keep a better grasp on CJ's hand he was attempting to run after his brother who was dribbling an orange ball.

"Ax! Ax!" CJ said babbling incoherently as he called for his brother.

Max turned to CJ and grinned, "You're going to see how _cool_ your big brother is," he informs CJ stopping so he can pat him on the head.

Santana watches as CJ nearly falls attempting to get the ball, "Max let your brother play with basketball, there are plenty in the gym for you to use alright?"

Max huffs but does as his mom requested rolling the ball to CJ who screams in joy as he breaks away from his mother to smack the ball around. "Fine, I'm going to go practice my dunks!"

Santana groaned, she was quite willing to let her son learn a valuable lesson about being a show off on his own. Even if the nets were brought down so that they would be kid sized. He didn't listen to her about learning the fundamentals of basketball, of course he wouldn't Charlie was in the NBA. Of course Charlie couldn't be bothered to show up to his son's basketball games, but Max still thought that Charlie was the best thing since sliced bread. "Max how about you practice your jump shot?"

Max frowned at this and shook his head. He'd rather practice dunking, when his dad finally came to watch him play he wanted to be able to do a dunk for him and then do their little game. Whenever his dad did an awesome dunk he'd give him a little sign to let him know that it was for him. "Nope, I'm going to practice my dunks."

"Well, this should be sufficiently amusing," Bela drawled opening the door to the court. There was a few parents there already, and she sighed. "I'll go find us some seats."

"Preferably in the front row," Santana instructs before turning to Max who was looking at all the parents. "Max, basketball is a team sport. Your dad is an all-star and not because he can dunk but because he's a dangerous sharp-shooter and excellent passer, and yes he can dunk whenever he wants to but that's only because he practiced non-stop at it."

Max huffed, " _Fine_."

"Ax," Cj said holding the ball out for him, he shook his hands and let the ball fall out and sort of bounce and roll to his brother. He clapped his hands when Max kicked the ball back to him and immediately ran after it when the ball rolled past him.

Santana turned to make sure she didn't lose sight of him, it was a shame that it was Tina's day off today. This would be so much easier with another set of eyes. The ball bumped into someone's feet as they rounded the corner. "I'm sorry—" Santana's jaw dropped and she stared at her ex-husband who looked like some sort of mountain man, with his hair and his scraggly beard. What made the situation even worse were the fake horn-rimmed glasses that he was wearing. "What are you doing here? It isn't your weekend."

Charlie tilted his head to Santana, of course _she_ would recognize him. "I came to watch Max play basketball and spend some time with my kids."

"It's not your—"

" _Dad!_ " A huge grin broke out on Max's face as he ran to his father.

"Max shush! I'm in my Clark Kent disguise, you can't go yelling who I am to people." Charlie admonished covering Max's mouth.

Max nods quietly, his dad had wanted to come watch him play not be distracted by everyone else. "Right, Clark Kent," he nods. He looks over at CJ who is staring at his father, "Well it works on CJ, it'll probably work on everyone else."

"CJ isn't even yet two years old and your father is over six feet and towers over everyone," Santana pointed out pinching the bridge of her nose. People were _going_ to notice.

"Shush mommy, he's uncle Kent," Max informed her a huge grin still on his face. This was like the best day ever.

"Uncle Kent—" Santana closed her mouth and looked to the ceiling. "Max go warm up." She waits until he's headed inside before she looks down at CJ who had managed to hide behind her legs and groans inwardly. This wasn't how she had wanted to spend her Saturday morning. "This _can't_ become a thing Charlie, you have your own scheduled time with the kids and you can't just—"

"I had the morning off and I came to see my son play basketball," Charlie interrupts. "I need more time with the kids, I'm not going to keep taking the scraps you give me when it comes time to it. I also don't want us to have to go back to court to settle this, but you can't keep me away from my damn kids. CJ doesn't even know I'm his _dad_. You're cutting me out of the parenting and then you tell everyone that I'm an absent father when I want to be a part of those kids lives, let's not even begin to dissect the fact that I'm paying thirty thousand a month for child support and you don't even tell me the things that I need to know to be an effective parent. So, you might be pissed at me and you can be, but this not talking thing that we do? Yeah it's not working, you need to keep me informed about the kids."

Santana stared at him, this wasn't _her_ fault. Charlie was the one who for long periods of time was in a different city every other night. He wasn't physically around to do any of it, the parent teacher meetings, the hunting down tutors for Bela, she did all the hard work. "Then make yourself available for them. You want to be part of the parenting then be part of the parenting. You want to know how your daughter is doing in school then _book_ time to meet with her teachers or I don't know show up to a parent teacher meeting, or I don't know open her damn report card. It's all online. Showing up to a basketball game, every now and again _means_ nothing in the long run. Now I'm going to go watch Max attempt to emulate you, and you—well find somewhere else to sit. You look like a hobo and when people realize that it's you they're going to mob you like usual." With that Santana turned around and picked up CJ up and walked inside to find a place to sit. She was the one that had to be with the kids and she'd be damned if he was going to blame her for everything when he didn't _help_. All that influence that Russell was exerting on his life was evident, with him now throwing the child support that he paid her in her face.

~O~

Charlie knocked on the door to the swanky apartment in LA again. "Come on Britt, I know you're home." He keeps knocking knowing that if he doesn't she'll just ignore him. "You literally _just_ posted on Snap Chat so I _know_ you're there."

Brittany pulls the door open, glaring at her annoying little brother. She would have thought that twenty years would make him less grating, but he was just as bad as when he was five. "Well maybe I didn't answer because I'm _busy_."

"Britt—" He whined, stopping the door with his hand when she tried to slam it shut, "I'm only in town for today and I need somewhere to crash."

She rolls her eyes. "You're a multimillionaire. Get a hotel."

"I don't want to." He grumbles somewhat playfully. He hates sleeping in hotel rooms, but more than that, he misses his sisters and the relationship they used to have. He doesn't care that they still talk to Santana, but he's going to try to make this better.

"Charlie—" Brittany groans. She does feel bad about the way things are between them, but she doesn't regret choosing Santana in the divorce. They'll work it out one day, she's sure of it because they always do, but until then Santana needs people on her side.

"Please?" He begs. "I thought we could spend some time together. You know, like we used to?"

She cringes and if this were any other time she would let him in and let him couch surf while stuffing his face full of her ice cream. She'd listen to his problems and give him advice—which he probably desperately needed if he was still listening to their dirtbag father. But she's expecting someone and she _definitely_ doesn't want Charlie to stick around and see who it is. "I have plans."

"Cancel them." Charlie declares obliviously. He's not in LA very often anymore and Brittany can go out to a new club or whatever tomorrow. Tonight they would fix this weird thing between them. Then maybe Brittany could help him get his life back.

"I'm not just going to cancel."

"Why not?" Charlie furrowed his brow suspiciously. "Unless—are you going on a date?"

"No."

"You _are_." His glee bubbles over and he smirks. "Do you like him? Is it serious?"

"Shut up. Look, what if we meet for lunch tomorrow before you have to get to the arena? Then we can talk and do all that family bonding stuff?" She suggests quickly, hoping to derail his train of thought.

"It's not the same."

"Charlie—"

"I don't have anywhere to go."

"You're far too old to be couch-surfing. Why don't you go bother Dani and then check into a hotel together?"

"No, TMZ will pick it up and I can't deal with them being in my life anymore," Charlie grumbles and grabs his duffel bag. "Quinn would totally let me crash at her place."

"Quinn is still pissed that there is a billboard of you in very tight boxers outside her window. She hasn't had sex since it went up. So I think she'd be more inclined to murder you," Brittany reminds him. "Look, I'm sorry but I've been looking forward to this date since forever." She's quiet and she sighs dramatically. "I'll even come to your game tomorrow."

Charlie flicks her eyes toward Brittany, she _hated_ watching basketball she thought it was boring. She made every excuse in the book to avoid going. Now it seemed like she was almost eager to go. He narrows his eyes for a moment. "Fine I know when I'm not wanted."

Brittany groaned, " _Charlie_ —"

"No, I get it, going out with Mike is more important than your own family. Say hi to him for me."

Brittany's eyes widened for a split second, Mike was going to freak if he found out that Charlie knew. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Charlie turned to Brittany and waved his hands, "I don't care if you're fucking Mike, he's a good guy and chances are you're going to mess it up. So long as he doesn't let that come between our friendship I could care less that you're dating him. Don't worry I'm not going to tell anyone. That's because I'm actually a decent brother, while you're there kicking me to the curb." Charlie sniffs dramatically for effect.

Brittany eyes him, he was trying to manipulate her, he had just always been terrible at it. "Thanks, I'll let him know that you give your blessing. Bye Charlie." With that she slammed the door closed and grinned knowing that his jaw had probably dropped. She had most definitely won that exchange. But she would most definitely meet him for lunch, so she could express her disapproval of this thing he had going on with Dani Harper of all people.

~O~

"What do you mean he has a claim for parental alienation?" Santana practically falls down into the chair across from her mother. This was her worst nightmare. Actually, no. The last two years had been one long drawn out nightmare that she wished she could wake up from. "Are you saying he could get primary custody?"

"I told you, this is the worst case scenario and while someone may _argue_ that you are interfering with the relationship between Charlie and his kids, we can _fight_ this." Maribel stated studying her daughter.

"I don't even understand how this is happening."

"Santana. Just because this is what _I_ would do if the situation was reversed doesn't mean that this is what _Charlie_ is doing. But a judge could find that since Charlie was involved in the kids' lives before and now he's _not_ that something else is going on. Especially given Bela's recent problems at school, it is something we should _plan_ for even if nothing comes of it."

"It's not like he tells me anything either." Santana defends. "And he has just as much access to the kids as he wants. I don't stop him from seeing them, I don't even talk _badly_ about him."

"But you make the decisions where they go to school, what sports they'll play—I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just pointing out how it could look." Maribel tries to explain again. She's regretting the fact that she even brought this up but she's not about to let her daughter be taken unprepared.

Carlos sighed. He knew what he was about to say would be unpopular in this household, but it didn't make it wrong. "As much as I want to kill that boy for everything he's done, a man should be able to see his children. Maybe you guys can work this out?"

"You think that with Russell whispering in Charlie's ear that I'll be able to talk to him _reasonably_?" Santana scoffs, feeling her eyes start to burn with the sheer weight of it all.

"It's not as if you haven't gotten what you wanted from him before, and I imagine that Russell wasn't to thrilled about the terms of the divorce," Carlos pointed out. "Let's be reasonable about this for a moment, he allowed you without fighting it to take the kids half-way across the country, even though it was nearly impossible for him to see them. He's asking to spend a bit more time with the kids because he doesn't know what's going on. You can work with that because the last thing you need is this becoming a messy custody battle because then it'll be everywhere."

Maribel wants to yell at her husband and accuse him of taking Charlie's side. But as much as it pains her, Carlos is right. "Your father may have a point. You two need to start co-parenting. Or at the very least, surprise him and drop the kids off, he probably won't be able to handle it all on his own, he might learn to be appreciative, or he might quiet down about wanting to spend more time with the kids."

"Are you kidding me? Max adores him, and Bela has him wrapped around his finger, it's not _difficult_ for him to have them for a weekend. But all the important things, the homework assignments and the doctor appointments, and the making sure that they are okay, and talking to them and teaching them, he doesn't do any of it. He was a much better parent when we were together, then he is now. He's not upset with Bela for failing, he's angry at me because he couldn't be bothered to find out. All he did was make sure she had some tutors."

"He's an idiot." Carlos agrees. "But, talk to him, see how his mind is going and if you suspect that he's looking to make this public and messy then you need to start making moves yourself, but if he's just a man who misses being a huge part of his kids lives then you two need to work on co-parenting them together. He may have screwed up but even you said that he was a good father."

Santana frowned and wiped at her eyes quickly, "Right," Santana said with a sigh. She was far too tired to deal with more lawyers and getting stuff done especially with the show—which was probably why Russell was coming after her. She just couldn't get away from him.

Sensing that his daughter had reached the end of her rope, Carlos tried to change the subject. "I hear you and Sebastian are doing well—"

Santana groans but Maribel pounces on the new direction. "When is he going to meet the kids?"

"Never." At both of her parents' look of dismay she sighs. "It's good and he's great. It's just—I'm not sure that Charlie would be okay with him meeting the kids. And with all the rest of this garbage up in the air I'm not exactly looking to start a fight."

"Why would it start a fight?" Carlos furrows his brow. "Charlie's introduced the kids to his new singer girlfriend, right? Bela wouldn't stop talking about meeting Dani."

Santana's body went rigid, " _What_?"

Maribel winced, "He didn't mention it I'm assuming?"

"No, he fucking didn't mention it—" Santana clenched her teeth. "I _told him_ I wasn't comfortable with the paparazzi taking photos of him making out with his new girlfriend where Max and the kids could see. He gave me some bullshit story about they were just friends. What would make him think it was okay to introduce his _girlfriend_ to them without consulting me?"

~O~

Dani tossed the headphones down, this wasn't working she needed a different voice to go with hers. This song needed someone that she had chemistry with. It probably would have helped if she was even remotely attracted to any of the men her studio sent over. They had high hopes for the song and she didn't want to let them down. Truthfully she had gotten the inspiration from Charlie and his life. Charlie who was currently lounging in the booth waiting for her to let him bunk in her apartment all because he didn't want to sleep in a hotel. He was such a man-child and she had no idea why she was friends with him but he sort of grew on you.

Charlie mumbled the words quietly, as he played on his phone. Dani's music wasn't really his thing, but hearing the same song over and over again in the booth as it was tweaked had jammed the song in his head. He honestly just wanted to go to Dani's place and crash on a bed before he had to play yet another game on the road. It was maddening. ' _Am I just hanging on to all the words she used to say? The pictures on her phone. She's not coming home—'_

It's a slightly different key than she had been playing before, but she harmonies him. ' _I'm not coming home_.'

Charlie blinks nearly dropping his phone, "Shit! Dani what are you doing here? Well not _here_ but—shouldn't you be in there doing what singers do?"

Dani smirked approaching him and cornering before he could run away, a devious glint in her eyes. "I didn't know you could sing."

"I _can't_ , my sister-in-law made that very clear," Charlie mumbles, he didn't like where this was going _at all_.

Dani ignored him, "Right, I didn't know you were multi-talented. If you didn't have that fur around your mouth I'd kiss you. If you were a woman, well I'd certainly fuck you."

Charlie shuddered violently, "Gross." He immediately gets swatted upside the head. He makes a face, "If you're going to abuse me then I'm just going to check into my hotel." What was with all the crazy ass women in his life. First Brittany choosing Mike over him, then Dani and her general weirdness it made him uncomfortable.

"No you're coming home with me and then _my_ people are going to call your people and we're going to do a song together, it's going to be a massive hit and you are going to be the most popular NBA star in the world."

Charlie snorted derisively, like hell he was going to do that. Everyone knew what happened when NBA players started entering the music industry. Shaq-fu, was enough to never ever think about crossing over. "My daughter _still_ hasn't forgiven me for the underwear campaign. I'm afraid if I do something else that she finds horribly embarrassing she'll disown me as a father. Not to mention the fact that my son might decide to be a singer instead and that's the last thing I need. So no thanks."

Dani ignores him and snatches his arm quickly. She makes quick work of finding her keys and dragging him out the door. "You're under the opinion that I'm going to take no for an answer."

"This is eerily similar to how my wedding day went," Charlie mutters under his breath.

Dani stops and turns. "Can I mention once again how hot your ex-wife is?"

"Trust me I'm aware of how hot my ex-wife is, especially when she's angry. It's extremely sexy when she's angry at other people, but lately she's just been mad at me. The feeling is somewhat mutual these days."

Dani hums as she continues to drag Charlie toward the exit, "So what you're saying is that once she dumps that chump, I can seduce her since you're not in love with her anymore?"

Charlie rolls his eyes, "I'm angry, I never said I didn't love her. If she told me I could come home tomorrow, I'd be in my home so fast it would break records. It's a dream you know? Having her forgive me and us working on our relationship. It's the only one I've got left though."

"Well, at least now the two of you are _sort_ of talking and you have kids together. So maybe when you find that balance, you can work on trying to win her back." Dani pushed open the door. "Now come on we need to get back to my place."

Charlie groans but follows Dani even as a sea of flashing lights and shouting paparazzi sound around them. He ducks his head and leads Dani through the waves of people trying to get a glimpse of them together. Bela is going to have a field day with this.


	16. Chapter 16

Santana stormed into his apartment, hating that this was starting to become a recurring theme. "What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing? Do you even _listen_ to me when I talk?"

"Santana? What are you doing here?" Charlie sat up, glancing around with a wince when he saw the mess around him. He hadn't bothered cleaning up in a while because he wasn't supposed to have the kids for another week and the mess didn't really bother him, especially since his building was one of the most secure in the city. His eyes narrow curiously. "Wait, _how_ are you here?"

"I took Bela's key." She waves her hand dismissively in order to get to the _actual_ point. "What part of I don't want the kids meeting your new 'fucktoy' do you not understand?"

Charlie scratches the back of his head, woefully unprepared for this afternoon's fight. "My fucktoy? Dani and I aren't like that and—"

"Oh. Excuse me, your _girlfriend_."

"Santana—"

"I get that you hate me for a lot of things, but damn it Charlie, I thought we were still in this together."

Charlie frowned his own anger spiking at the comment. "Since when were we in this together? The only time we talk is you barging in on me to yell at me for something that you _think_ you know. You don't call me for anything that's important. Bela is struggling in school; you don't give me a call. CJ still refuses to call me daddy, you don't care enough that my _son_ doesn't recognize me as his dad. I wanted to do this _with_ you, I wanted to work with you on this but you cut me off from day one. You haven't even told me what the plan is for our son's birthday, and you know I missed the last one. So don't come in here pissed off at me—fuck I don't even know why you're pissed at me. Dani and I are just friends."

Santana rolls her eyes. Of _course_ he says they're just friends. Just like the countless women he slept with on the road while they were together. She's an idiot forever thinking he'd really be honest with her. "Excuse me for not realizing how _dependable_ you are. Where were you when I called last year to tell you Bela was skipping class? Or when you _missed_ CJ's birth?"

"That wasn't my fault—"

"Of course it wasn't. Because poor pathetic Charlie Fabray can _never_ be responsible for his own fuckups. I've heard the stories. 'Fuck Santana, I'm so sorry, my assistant didn't realize'—" She shakes her head derisively. She's _done_ taking the blame for Charlie's part-time parenting. "You know what? You shouldn't _need_ me to give you a call for all the stupid little things that are going on. Figure it out yourself. I have _never_ kept the kids from you, I only asked you to keep a damn schedule. Bela's struggling in school? Why don't you look at the damn progress reports. I _know_ you have a login because I gave it to you myself. CJ doesn't call you daddy? Well guess what, CJ cries like eighty percent of the time: get over it. And if you want to know what the plan is for our son's birthday _why don't you fucking plan it yourself_?"

"You honestly think that I can't plan an amazing day for our son and a few of his friends? Then give me the entire day with him."

"No, I'm his mother as well and I am not letting you be insanely irresponsible with our son. Don't think I don't know you plan to take him somewhere fucking ridiculous, like to Disney or something. I'm not letting you be the fun irresponsible parent anymore while I have to deal with Bela's teenage years by myself. You introduced our daughter to your _girlfriend_ knowing that it would score brownie points."

"First off, Dani _isn't_ my girlfriend. Secondly, I didn't do anything wrong, Bela showed up at my door while Dani was here, what was I supposed to do? Make Dani hide in the closet? Bela was angry about the underwear campaign. I didn't think anything of it because it was no big deal. You're making this into this huge thing when the reality is, it isn't."

"Like hell it isn't. How would you feel if I introduced the kids to Sebastian? You'd probably throw a tantrum or something of the sort. But you know what? Unlike you, I can admit the truth. We're seeing each other, it's not exclusive but we've had _sex_. It was fucking fantastic."

Charlie steps back as if he's been struck. "You slept with someone else?" He can't hide the hurt that clouds his question.

"We're _divorced_." Santana rolls her eyes. She wasn't going to let him guilt her about this. He had slept with other women when they were married. She was _allowed_ to try and move on. "You _certainly_ didn't have problems sleeping with other people while we were married."

Charlie groans. "And how long are you going to hold that over my head, huh? Yeah, I'm an asshole. I screwed up. I _know._ But that doesn't mean I ever stopped—"

"Stop." Santana shakes her head, taking a deep breath to try to cool her rising temper. "We're getting off track. I don't care about how your pride is hurt right now, I care that you introduced our kids to your new ' _girlfriend'_ without consulting me, and you're standing there lying to my face."

"I'm not lying about it, Bela met Dani. Dani isn't my girlfriend. I've introduced the kids to friends before—"

"You were _kissing her_ , there are pictures of you kissing her! I don't care if you're just fuckbuddies, I didn't want the kids meeting her. And even if what you're saying is true and Bela barged in here—"

"Something she clearly gets from you," Charlie mutters, but swallows when Santana's eyes narrow at him.

"Then you should have called me, you should have let me know you should have—"

He acts before he can stop himself, closing the distance between them and pressing his lips against hers, hard. For just a second he loses himself in the way she makes him feel as the small smells that make her scent so unique wash over him. It ends too soon when she pushes him back forcefully, slapping his face as hard as she can.

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?"

Charlie rubbed his cheek wincing as he licked his lip studying at her, that had not gone as he had expected. "The last time you barged in here this angry at me, and attempting to make me feel like shit we ended up having sex. I thought we could skip the part where you call me every name in the book, where you tell me things that you know will hurt me just because you want to see me bleed and we just get to the part where we have hate sex."

"I'm not going to be your _mistress_ just so you can kick me out tomorrow morning."

"Once again, I'm _not_ dating Dani." Charlie frowned. "And I'm not about to kick you out. The last person I had sex with was with you—"

"You know what? I don't believe you. That's the thing about cheating on your spouse Charlie when it comes to other women, it makes your word about these types of things incredibly hard to believe. Especially since it's obvious that you're dating her, or at least fucking her. I guess the old saying is true once a cheater always a cheater." Santana snaps. "But I'm _more_ than just your two-bit whore." She spins on her heel and moves to storm out of Charlie's apartment.

"Santana, wait!" He stops her, stepping between her and the door. He isn't about to let her walk out of his life again without a fight. "I want to fix this between us. I want to come home."

Santana stares at him, "I gave you a chance to come home and you threw it away. You signed the divorce papers, you don't get to fight now when I'm moving on. And I _am_ moving on without you Charlie." Santana takes a shaky breath. "I'm going to see if Sebastian is free this weekend and then I'm going to introduce him to the kids. You wanted me to loop you in? Well I just did, now I have to get to work," When Charlie doesn't move she frowns and shoves him out of the way before walking out. She can't look back now, or she'll regret it or maybe she'll cave and let him treat her like he had before.

~O~

Bela sighed as she moved through the house searching for her brothers. The only good thing about today was that her mom had promised to return her phone if she actually behaved herself. "Max? CJ?" She called out, stopping by Max's room only to notice that the clothes that their mom had set out for him were still on his bed. Which probably meant that Max was in his underwear again, which probably meant that CJ was running around in his diaper. Her family was _weird_ and the boys in her family were even weirder. But she wasn't going to let them ruin her getting her phone back. She heads to CJ's room and pauses at the doorway watching as CJ played with his various toys while Max talked at him.

"And _then_ dad did this sick dunk from the charity stripe CJ, it was _so_ cool! It was classic Jordan, and it was like insane. You know he said this might be his last year for the dunk contest, but he's totally going to let me help him choose his three dunks—"

CJ turned to look at Bela, "Ela!" He raises his hands to be carried by her as he shuffles over. Now bored with Max's talking. "Up!"

Bela smiled at him and picked him up moving to get some clothes for him to put on, "I get it, why walk anywhere when people are willing to carry you. Don't get used to it though. Soon mom and everyone else is going to insist that you walk like the rest of us normal people." CJ laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world and Bela rolls her eyes. "Go get dressed Max."

Max frowned upset that Bela was taking away his playmate. "I don't wanna get dressed."

"Too bad." Bela shrugged. "Tonight's important for mom, and we all need to be on our best behavior. So just be polite to her new boyfriend, no one said you had to like him just be polite."

"It's polite not to make people wear pants." Max reasons, smirking proudly at his quick retort. He didn't want to meet his mom's _boyfriend_. His mom and his dad were supposed to be together. "Dad promised that we could be a family again."

"Right, cause that's going to happen. Dad has his own girlfriend," Bela retorted when Max's bottom lip quivers she sighs. "All mom and dad do is fight when they're around each other. It's been over a year, and they don't even like talking to each other. So this might be a promise that dad can't keep, and I don't think he _wants_ to be with mom."

"He does too—" Max defends, not really having anything else he can say. His dad _loved_ his mom.

Bela tries not to roll her eyes. "Look, tonight is important to mom anyway. You don't want to make her sad, do you?"

Max frowns at that. His mom had been sad a lot lately. "No." He settles on after a minute, kicking is feet against the floor absently. "I'll go get dressed," he said with a sigh. He had just wanted to watch his dad's game with CJ but now he wasn't going to be able to do that. "Is he a basketball player?"

"No, he's a doctor or something. I don't think he does sports or anything," Bela shrugs she hadn't really been paying attention when her mom was talking about him.

"Boring."

"Our abuelo is a doctor."

"Yeah but he's nice, and he's our _abuelo_." Max explains. "I'm still going to watch dad's game tonight. He probably doesn't know anything about basketball."

"Remember we don't want to make mom sad. So just be polite and enjoy the fact that mom's made our favorite." Bela waved him off as she struggled to hold CJ who had gotten bored again and was trying to squirm out of her arms. "No, we've got to put you into clothes CJ."

~O~

Charlie tossed up another shot during warmups, grimacing when it didn't even come close to the net. He was distracted and he had a bad feeling that he was looking at a single digit night tonight. It wasn't fair to his teammates, but he couldn't get the image of Santana playing house with her _boyfriend_ and their kids while he played some stupid game. That was _his_ family.

Coach Beiste recognized the lost look in his eyes and the flat arch to his shot and came up behind him, almost without any warning. "Focus Fabray."

Charlie tosses another shot up only to have it hit the rim and ricochet off at a weird angle. He makes a face at it, tonight was not his night. "I'm _trying_."

Coach Beiste watched the ball bounce away for a moment before turning her attention back on him. His form was still on point but she could see the tightness on his face. "Well you aren't trying hard enough. What's your deal? You've been off all day."

"Santana has the kids tonight. she's introducing her new boyfriend—" Charlie began as he tried not to scowl as he thought about it. Just the idea of the possibility of the kids calling another man dad, pissed him off beyond words.

Shannon held up her hands, "I get it. I do understand. You're _pissed_ that he's going to be there while you're _here_. I'd say go to them but you'd probably end up doing something that got you arrested and we don't need that right now. So why don't you take all that rage you feel and channel into something healthy. Like getting that ball into that basket."

Charlie scowled, his jump shot was only just a bit off. "I'll be fine." There's a thunk as the ball bounces off the top of the backboard and flies into the stands.

Shannon was about to say something when there was a shrill whistle by the refs. "Remember the ball goes into the basket," she repeats nudging him. "Channel all your anger."

Charlie rolls his eyes and steps into place for the tipoff rotating his shoulders. What did she think he was trying to do? But the idea of some _asshole_ sitting in that house putting his hands on Santana pissed him off. He shifts his body to get ready to move as soon as the ball is in his hand, and he doesn't have to wake long as Mike flicks the ball to him. He's off in a second pushing past the defense which is a step to slow as he jumps up and brings the ball into the net jamming it down hard. The force and the fact that he hangs on causes the rim to crack the glass as he brings the rim down with him as he lands on his feet. The glass shatters around him and he ducks his head to avoid it.

Shit.

That was a huge fine and a technical, not to mention the wasted time while they brought out a new net. This was _not_ what he needed tonight. He cranes his neck to the side and with a sigh, hands the rim to the maintenance crew guy. He turns to look at the other men on the court, the entire arena is quiet. "What?" He asks shrugging as the entire place erupts. He rolled his eyes and walked back to his bench, there was nothing like playing in front of a home crowd. He glances at Shannon who was shaking her head. "You said to put the ball in the net so that's what I did." He had probably put the other team on notice as well. Now he had a good half hour at least to hyperfocus on what his kids and ex-wife were up to.

~O~

Sebastian scratches his cheek as Max pointedly ignores his presence.

Santana shoots him an apologetic look before glaring at her oldest son. "Max? Sebastian asked you a question."

"Oh. I wasn't listening." Max shrugged and stuffed another forkful of enchiladas in his mouth. "Sorry."

Bela reached over to poke him in the side and gave him a look. "He asked you what your favorite thing to do is."

Max scowled at Bela before turning to Sebastian and forcing a smile on his face as he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Watch my dad play basketball, because he's awesome."

Santana resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose, she expected this from Bela but not Max. Max liked _everyone_. "Max, you're dangerously close to being rude to Sebastian." The evening was becoming a disaster. Bela at least hadn't made a snarky comment and at least CJ seemed to have taken to Sebastian. But her middle child had been difficult and cutting, it was the first time she had seen herself in Max. It was times like these she felt sorry for her own mother, she had probably not been an easy child.

"Sorry." Max grumbles shooting his own glare at CJ who was happily sucking on the lollipop Sebastian had provided. He didn't mean it at all but if it kept him from being in trouble then that's what he would say.

"You know, I played a bit of basketball." Sebastian lies conversationally. He's not sure what makes him say it, but it comes out before he can stop himself.

Santana bites back a low groan, this was not going well at all. In fact it was going terribly. "But I'm sure that was years ago—"

"Well you obviously weren't very good at it," Max frowns. "My dad could totally kick your butt."

"He could, I admit that but I can do things that he can't do like save lives," Sebastian said puffing out his chest proudly.

Max stared at him getting annoyed when Bela decided to intervene before her mom lost it. "Hey Max, why don't you finish up so you can still catch the half-time report and see the plays dad made. I think I forgot to record it."

"How could you _forget_?" Max is up and out of his chair before anyone can stop him, "It's a _home game."_ Max runs to the tv and fiddles with the DVR. Home games were the best because people realized how awesome his dad was.

Santana sighs and reaches to squeezes Sebastian's hand, "He loves his dad very much, I'm sure he'll get used to you."

"No I won't!" Max calls out loudly from the living room.

Bela flicks her eyes between her mom and Sebastian, this whole thing was rather awkward. Sebastian looked funny and she personally thought he was trying too hard for them to like him. He was just a regular boring person, who didn't fit. At least their dad was dating someone important. "Dinner was good mom, I'm going to take CJ and go watch the game with Max." She doesn't wait for her mom to excuse her as she grabs CJ. "It was nice meeting you Sebastian, I guess you can come and watch the game if you don't mind Max talking a million words per minute—"

Sebastian glanced at Santana, this dinner wasn't turning out how he had expected and there was a part of him that wanted to turn tail and run. But he smiles instead, this was a family and no one said it was going to be easy. "No, I'll help your mom put away the dishes and then maybe we can watch the game together. I'm sure Max has a lot he can teach me about the game."

"Well, if you don't mind having your eardrums blown out when my ex-husband dunks then _sure_." Santana exhales, she wasn't quite sure if Charlie had influenced Max to act like that but she'd be certainly having a conversation with him after Sebastian left to see if Charlie had attempted to undercut her authority. He was allowed to not like Sebastian, and that would certainly play a role in how she decided to move things forward but Max needed to at least give Sebastian a bit of a chance. No one would ever replace Charlie and she wasn't trying too. She just wanted to be happy, and being near Sebastian, well she wasn't happy but she at the very least was content.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Sebastian says with a laugh. He doubted it was that bad.

" _No. Way_." Max's voice carried from the living room.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Just let him talk to you and don't argue with him, he's like an encyclopedia with this sort of stuff. Hard to get him to look at anything else. We should go see what he's going on about before he starts yelling and CJ gets overexcited."

"This must happen a lot?"

"I'm surprised he hasn't ruined his voice with all the yelling, I don't think he _understands_ what indoor voice means at time," Santana explains. But Max was a relatively healthy boy all together. She moves to the living room, it's a ritual that had continued after her divorce. One that she couldn't shake, but they did watch Charlie's games as a family. She knew that Bela was being super nice so she got her phone back, but she had invited Sebastian to join in on the family affair and that was certainly something. She frowns when she notices that Max is just standing there vibrating in excitement and even Bela looks impressed. "What did your father do now?"

Bela points to the television and waits till her mom is watching before hitting play on the remote, the whole sequence of events happening again as her dad practically brought the entire net down, the glass shattering around him. "That."

"That was— _AWESOME!_ " Max yelled pumping his fists in the air. That was the _coolest_ thing he had ever seen. "Wasn't that awesome mom! Can he do it again? Why hasn't he done it before? He didn't do the thumbs up sign—"

"It was pretty cool, he got cut though I don't think he noticed, there's a bit of blood on his arm. Must have been the glass." Bela agrees as there was an instant replay. "I think he was surprised Max I don't think he meant for that to happen."

"Well, that does look pretty cool," Sebastian admits grudgingly, the man did know how to make a statement. He had to give Charlie Fabray that much.

Santana frowned smacking Bela's feet off the couch, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Yeah fifty thousand dollars to look cool. There's no way that the league doesn't slap him with a huge fine, and he basically got hit with a technical. Not to mention they needed to replace the net, so that's another half-hour to an hour wait just for a stunt like that." Santana shook her head as she took a seat. She reaches for the remote to grab it from Bela and remembers that Sebastian is still standing there looking a bit awkward. "Sit enjoy the game—Max you're not supposed to be pleased that your father broke the net!"

"Come on, it did look pretty cool. You know it's probably going to be in slow motion by tomorrow and all over the place." Bela offers.

"He looked like a superhero!" Max grins and flops back on the couch before glancing at Sebastian who was sitting by his mom and had put an arm around her shoulder. Hero's always won and he just needed to be patient and wait for his dad to keep his promise.


	17. Chapter 17

**This story has 78 chapters. Stuff happens.**

* * *

Charlie groans when Dave hits a particularly sore spot, grateful that the team pays for these massages. He's already in a mood and he's somewhat glad that he only has endorsement deal meetings today. Sue woke him up to yell at him for fouling out the night before and he has a lingering headache that just won't quit. It was going to be a long day, a long and painful day and he didn't want Dave to stop touching him in the purely non-homosexual way that he was doing now. "It would be extremely impolite of me to groan now wouldn't it?"

"Don't worry about it, I can feel the knots in your back. You're stressed and judging from what happened last night the front office wants to make sure that you're happy, and if you want to talk about it—"

"Dave, I would, but I'm only in a towel and that makes me very uncomfortable, maybe when I'm actually wearing clothes?" Charlie offers, "Unless you know the name of a therapist. I should probably see someone. Too talk about how my mom was an alcoholic, my sisters probably hate me and my need to have my father love fucked up all my relationships—mmm right there."

"I can ask around if you'd like." Dave murmurs, focusing on releasing the tension from Charlie's muscles. "Your life kind of sounds like shit right now."

"Tell me about it, I have to live it. Listen to me complaining about my shitty problems when I'm this successful," he shakes his head frowning slightly, feeling a bit ungrateful for the opportunities that had been afforded to him. Opportunities that in a few short hours he was going to take full advantage of and make an insane amount of money. He sits up when Dave stops rotating his shoulder and adjusting his towel around him.

"I'll be back tomorrow." Dave promises, taking the hint.

"Anyway I can convince you to come tonight?" Charlie asked fixing his towel before sliding off the portable massage table. It was not like he'd be doing anything tonight, that he was aware of. Just attempting to plan a special day with Max for his birthday, and dealing with trying to find out more about Bela's schooling.

"I've got other players to see but maybe give me a call," Dave suggested, trying his darndest not to take a peek as Charlie's towel slipped off a bit. "Just find your center and relax, maybe take up some yoga."

Charlie made a face at that idea, he had never been any good or patient enough to try yoga. "Maybe." Charlie shrugs noncommittally. He moves to lounge on his couch for a few moments as Dave packs up when he hears the lock to his front door turning. He shakes his head a bit when Santana opens the door, and he had thought that Bela would visit him more. "Again, that key was for my daughter. You really can't just barge in here whenever you think I've done something wrong. Pretty sure that's trespassing right Dave?"

Dave flicked his eyes between Charlie and Santana for a moment he would never admit that Basketball Wives LA had been a guilty pleasure, and he knew of Santana. "Yeah, not getting involved." He finished packing up the portable table and grabbed it by the handle. "I'll see you tomorrow, if I can't make time for you tonight."

Santana frowns watching Dave carefully, she smiles when he nods towards her and leaves the apartment. She hadn't actually expected to find Charlie in just a towel. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

Charlie flicked his eyes towards her as he reached for the remote to his television. He wasn't really in the mood to deal with getting yelled at again by Santana, it hadn't even been several weeks since the last time. "I'd say that I wasn't sleeping with him either but you probably wouldn't believe me. So I'm just going to say to think what you want Santana." He shook his head, as he flipped through the channels reaching for his phone to check his messages. "What did I do this time Santana? I only ask because you only deign me with your presence when I have done something wrong."

Santana pinches the bridge of her nose. "Look, I don't have time for snarky back and forth. Max was a little shit all night long and I need to know, did you put him up to that?"

"No."

"Charlie—"

"I didn't tell Max to do anything if he doesn't like the men you're bringing home in some veiled attempt to replace me in their lives then that's on you." Charlie responds tapping on a new email on his phone.

"I'm not replacing you, damn it and if I was it wouldn't be a veiled attempt. I'd tell you outright." Santana snaps. "Max is supposed to be our _good_ kid and I can't exactly handle Bela's rebellious streak and Max sneering at every adult he can in the same breath. Can you talk to him?"

Charlie sighs, it sucks but he's their father and he _just_ yelled at Santana for keeping him out of the loop. "I don't know what you want me to do. Do you want me to tell Max that he should just try to be best buddies with your boyfriend? Would that make you happy?"

"No. I just—" She blows out a breath. She's not sure _what_ she wants but it's not this. "I don't want our kids turning into entitled little assholes."

Charlie studies Santana for a moment before going back to his phone to continue to check messages. "Max isn't an entitled asshole all because he doesn't like your new boyfriend. He's a kid who wants his mom and dad to get back together. I can sympathize with him, I can. So excuse me if I don't feel super sympathetic to this latest disaster in our lives. He doesn't like your new boyfriend. Bela probably doesn't like him either but she behaved herself because you bribed her with her phone."

Santana scowled as Charlie stood up, "Bela was surprisingly polite but _your son_ is taking his cues from you—"

"I didn't say anything about your new boyfriend, I don't even know what he looks like and I certainly didn't say anything to Max about it. You're the one that decided to rush them into it in an attempt to get back at me. I didn't introduce Dani to the kids, Bela met her when she came over for a surprise visit. CJ doesn't even see me as a father, so she was just another adult to him as far as I'm concerned. As for our daughter, I told her straight up that Dani was _not_ my girlfriend. Either you believe me or you don't and honestly at this point I sound like a broken record repeating myself over and over again. What I do know is that I certainly wouldn't rush anybody I was dating to meet our kids just to get back at you. Which is what you did."

"I don't know what you want from me." Santana throws up her hands in dismay. "I don't trust you—" Charlie opens his mouth to interrupt but she doesn't let him. "—Sure, you _say_ you aren't dating. But you forget that I _know_ you and more importantly I know how the Russell Fabray PR scheme works. Two years from now I'll see you and Dani and _my children_ on a magazine cover declaring that you're fighting for your kids. And who ends up losing again? _Me_. So yes, maybe I jumped on introducing them to Sebastian. But fuck it Charlie, I'm _trying._ Why can't I move on too?"

"I—" Charlie pauses and tries to come up with the right thing to say. There's only one thing that sticks out in his mind and it bubbles out of him before he can think better of it, "I fired my dad."

Santana pauses for a moment, her jaw dropping. Russell had never approved of their union. All the snide comments that he'd make, or the fact that he constantly tried to undermine their marriage and yet Charlie had kept him on as an agent. Even if he wasn't worth the salary that Charlie paid him. She forces her surprise off her face and instead shrugs her shoulders, like it's no big deal, even if she's wondering why Brittany or Quinn hadn't mentioned it. "It is about time." Santana folds her arms over her chest. "But if you think—"

"Yes, I'm aware that it's a little too late." Charlie frowns as he scratches the back of his head. "There isn't going to be a huge court battle over the kids, I'm here trying to spend time with them to make sure that they don't hate me like Brittany and Quinn hate our father. I would never do that to you. You hate me because I hurt you and humiliated you, and I gave you everything that you asked for when we divorced. I let you practically fuck me over financially, I didn't fight you on the child support, I didn't fight you on alimony I didn't fight you for my _stuff,_ all I asked was that you don't take the kids from me and you did. You dragged them to Ohio, and again I let you without fighting you on it because I didn't want the kids exposed to the paparazzi either. I'm here in Ohio so I can see my kids more often but I'm not allowed to stop by the house, you won't let them see me when it's not 'my time' and the terms of our custody agreement said that you had to be generous with the time and I'm still not fighting you on it. But this thing of inviting men over to meet the kids, that _hurts_. I'm not going to make Max behave himself because you fucked up that situation. I'm not going to encourage him either."

"You think I've done any of that to _punish_ you? Grow the fuck up Charlie. I had to leave LA not just for the paparazzi but because every magazine and newspaper in a twenty-mile radius called _me_ a whore. I _never_ said you weren't allowed to stop by the house, I said they needed a _goddamn schedule_. I'm so _tired_ of always being the one who has to clean up your messes _and even then_ I'm asking you for help as my children's father. I should have known that you'd be just as useless at that as you were at being my husband." Santana snaps. There are things she's done wrong, even she can see that. But he's the one who abandoned their family. He's the one who chose his _father_ over fixing all of this and she hates him a little for that. She's not perfect, but she's not some villain either.

"Yes, because me coming to ask you to help make the kids like whoever I'm dating more would have gone over so well." Charlie pinches the bridge of his nose. These conversations between them always turned into some sort of screaming match and he was tired of it. "The fact that you can't see it, the fact that I'm not even on the list of people who can pick up _our_ kids from school is you punishing me. I am willing to work with a schedule with you, I've always been able to do that but with me flying in and out of Ohio, depending on my away schedule but you're not willing to work with me on that. Whenever I ask, you tell me to work with the schedule. I can't pick the kids up from school every day. I can't take them to school every day. I'm not here some weekends, and sometimes I can't read Max a story or talk to Bela because of the time differences, or I'm on a plane. You want to keep them on a schedule fine, but work with me to find the balance. I'm not taking them anywhere I just want to see them and help with the homework or watch movies with them or do something. You _are_ punishing me and at this moment in time I don't have time to deal with this argument right now. So please stop _barging_ into my apartment and yelling at me. You have my number call me if you need to speak to me."

Santana feels like she's been slapped with his dismissal. She's not sure why she's surprised, every action Charlie has made in the last year has reiterated that she and their kids are not a priority. "Right. Thank you, Father of the Year, because once again _I_ get to be the bad guy. Whatever, I'll figure out how to deal with Max on my own. Thanks for nothing, by the way." She turns on her heel and storms out before she does something she regrets. She stops at the door, and she can feel Charlie's eyes on her. "You know; the kids are young right now. Max thinks you can't do anything wrong, Bela is just being a teenager but five years from now, ten years from now? Your relationship with them is going to be just as bad as Brittany and Quinn's relationship with your father is. You know why? You're exactly like him."

Charlie frowns when the door slams behind her. That's just fucking great, when was he going to catch a break?


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm just amused at all the hate that Charlie gets. Things will seem to look up and then it will get worse before it gets better. Charlie's behavior will get worse in certain parts, just a heads up. I wrote it like that for a reason.**

* * *

"Look, I know you think that I'm too hard on you, but this is your first dance and you're lucky that it's me that's giving you this talk instead of your father." Santana pointed out watching as her daughter got ready. Charlie probably remembered their whole courtship incorrectly and while he had asked her out, he had been and still was a bit of an introvert. "He'll probably hand you some mace and inform you to not let any guy get to close in case they attempt to get you pregnant through very raunchy dance moves. You know something that would make you wonder how he managed to have three kids if he doesn't understand how babies are made."

 _"_ _Mom_." Bela groans shaking her head, she just wanted her mother's opinion on what she was wearing. Even if they didn't agree on most things these days, Bela had to give her mom the respect that she was due. She had always been good with fashion and stuff and she had never steered her wrong before. "How do I look?"

Santana eyed her daughter critically, she would certainly need to help her with her hair but other than that the red dress looked fine on her daughter. Charlie would probably mutter about how the dress was far too short for a soon to be twelve-year-old but the dress was at her knees. "You look fine," Santana said standing up so she could help her daughter with her hair. "I know you don't want to hear a lecture, but once upon a time I was your age. Look, there are shitty people out there and you need to protect yourself. Just be smart, and honestly if you need me to come pick you up. I'll come pick you up. I'd rather you be safe and muttering about how I'm out to get you then getting into a car with some drunk asshole, just because you think it's cool. Dying young is not cool, it's stupid and I know for a fact that you aren't stupid Bela."

"I _know_ mom; dad already gave me this talk when I mentioned that I was going to my first dance. If I leave my drink unattended, for even a second leave it. Make sure to stick by friends if I don't feel comfortable in a situation, and he went out and got me this little can of mace that I can put on my keychain if the boys get too touchy feely."

Santana groaned inwardly of course he did, just like she had predicted. "Okay, give me the mace. You can probably get expelled for having it in school, it's a weapon and it's a dance. There will be parents and teachers there making sure everything is okay. So if you have a problem make sure to see one of them."

Bela didn't waste any time handing over the can that her dad had insisted she take with her everywhere. She already had enough to be nervous about with the dance tonight, the last thing she needed was her dad insisting she do something that made her into some sort of freak. "So, since this is a dance, that means I can stay out later too, right?" Bela pushes. Her mom's been weirdly evasive about her curfew and all of her friends want to hang out after the dance. She _can't_ be the only loser who has to go home right after.

Santana tries not to cringe at the thought of her daughter hanging out until all hours of the night. "Why don't you invite your friends to come sleep over after the dance?"

Bela crinkles her nose, "With Max and CJ trying to butt in? Mom you can't be serious. Max refuses to put on clothes and walks around in his underwear, I don't want to be the class weirdo—"

Santana sighs, of course that's where Bela's mind went and she did have a point. "Your dad's in town and doesn't have a game this weekend, so how about I drop Max and CJ off with him? They can do their weird boys night thing and I'll be here. I'm sure Max will love to spend any time with your father and CJ needs to get used to your dad anyway."

"You think he'll say yes?"

"Well, I can call him and see what he's up to tonight," Santana offered, it was the best she could do. She picks up her phone and dials Charlie's number.

He answers on the first ring. _'Santana? Are the kids okay?'_

"Yeah, everybody's fine." She assures quickly. She should have expected this reaction, especially since she has never really called him outside of an emergency. Maybe she should have called from Bela's phone, but there's no going back now.

Charlie obviously relaxes at the admission but presses for more information before Santana can say anything else. _'Is Bela ready for the dance? She has the can of mace, right?'_

Santana rolls her eyes and refuses to find it adorable that her ex-husband cares so much about this. "She's not taking the mace, Charlie that could be considered a weapon."

 _'_ _Of self-defense.'_ Charlie argues half-heartedly. He was already pretty sure that Bela wouldn't take it with her but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. He's not sure how he and Santana have sort of fallen into a comfortable conversation, but he doesn't want to blow it. _'Is she excited?'_

Santana glances at her daughter who is trying to pretend not to watch them. "Yes. She is, but she was wondering if you would take Max and CJ tonight so she can have her friends over without worrying about being embarrassed."

 _'_ _Do I get to see her in her dress?_ '

Santana rolled her eyes, "Will you promise not to be weird about it? The dress is fine and appropriate for her age group. Remember you can barely dress yourself."

' _I'm a guy, I look good in dark jeans and a shirt, or if I'm feeling like showing off, I can go without a shirt. Let me see_.'

Santana sighs and quickly takes a picture of her daughter sending it to Charlie, he was such a child sometimes it was unbelievable. "There now are you going to take the kids or not?"

 _'_ _Hmm, yeah sure_ — _Santana the dress looks a bit_ —'

"It's to her knees and she looks beautiful. Do you want to talk to her?" She hands the phone over to Bela before Charlie can protest.

Bela doesn't waste any time, "What do you think Daddy?" She's laying it on thick, but she's also a little nervous.

 _'_ _I think you look beautiful. Just like your mother in fact.'_ Charlie responds. ' _You'll be fine, and don't be worried if the guys aren't doing much, they probably won't know how to approach you._ _Now let me talk to your mom_.'

Bela beams and hands the phone back to her mom, who had spent the entire time rolling her eyes. "Laying it on a bit thick aren't you?" Santana accuses him.

' _Santana, she looks exactly like you. You need to have her change. Do you remember what happened when you dressed like that and we were together?'_

"You spilled punch all over yourself and I didn't see you for hours." Santana replies. Charlie is getting upset at nothing, and he _clearly_ doesn't remember their middle school years correctly. He had been a tall awkward kid that practically stumbled all over himself whenever he saw her. "I can only imagine what you were doing in the bathroom by yourself. She'll be fine Charlie."

Charlie frowns. He doesn't want _any_ twelve-year-old boy thinking about his daughter the way he felt around Santana. _'Is it too late to tell her she can't go? I'll book tickets and we can take them to Disneyworld. That's a good enough distraction, right?'_

Santana laughs. "Calm down. Yes, it's too late but she's going to have a great time. I'll have her call you after the dance and I'll send Tina with the boys right now."

Charlie grins at the sound of Santana's laughter. It's something he's missed more than he can say. _'Uh, okay. Thanks for calling. Though next time I'm going to sign on to be one of those parent supervisors.'_

Santana rolled her eyes and shakes her head. "Bela would never speak to you again, and she's _turning twelve_. We can have this conversation when she's fourteen."

" _Fine_. _I'll clean up and get ready for Max and CJ, have they eaten dinner yet? Can CJ eat pizza, it's my cheat day. I feel like pizza.'_

"No they haven't eaten dinner yet, but I'll let them know they're going to visit." Charlie had definitely gotten the better deal between them. Max and CJ were going to be easy compared to a few nearly teenaged girls. "Text me when Tina's brought them over?"

' _Okay, remember to tell Bela no boys.'_

"Right, I'll get on that immediately." Santana rolls her eyes and hangs up. She wasn't going to get into the double standard, if only because they had both agreed that Max was probably going to be living with them for the rest of his life. She turns her attention back to Bela. "Okay. I'm going to tell Max and CJ to get ready and then I'll come back and we'll do something about your hair."

Tonight was going to be the best night ever; Bela was sure of it.

~O~

"Can't we eat on the couch?" Max whines as Charlie places the pizza on the table in front of him. His mom always made them eat at the table but this was supposed to be 'boy's night'.

"No." Charlie reminds his son. He's already got a night planned with block building and maybe some kid-appropriate video games, but he's really trying to get this whole fatherhood thing back on track. "We're sitting up at the table for dinner."

Max huffs, for a moment but brightens after a few moments as his dad plops down a gigantic slice of pizza in front of him. "So when are you going to start practicing for the dunk contest? You said when I got old enough I could help you choose which one was awesome! And that I could come with you to an All-Star game. I already voted for you. I vote for you every day and you're number one!"

Charlie sighed, he was getting older and while he could still fly with the rest of them, there were better dunkers in the league this really was his last year of flying through the air. "We'll see about it being this year alright?" All-star weekend was in LA this year.

"Are you going to enter the three-point contest and the skills challenge too?"

"I didn't plan on it," Charlie ruffles Max's hair. "Your dad's getting old Max, I need to start worrying about keeping my body healthy so I can continue to play basketball alright?"

Max frowned, his dad wasn't _that_ old. "You're still going to bring home a championship right?"

"That's the plan, so when I retire, I can give a ring to your sister and CJ and there will be one for you." Charlie turns to CJ who is stuffing the food into his face. "You'd like that wouldn't you CJ? To have your own championship ring?"

CJ turns to look at Charlie and shakes his head. "No!"

Charlie huffs at this, "I'm your daddy CJ—"

"No!"

"But—"

"No!"

Max laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world. "That's his new favorite word, he says it all the time. Tina said it's cause we're always telling him no."

Charlie huffs puffing out his cheeks and staring at his youngest son. He places a hand on Max's head. "Okay CJ, who is this?"

"Ax."

"As nicknames go, Ax isn't all that bad." Charlie mutters mostly to himself. He points to himself, "Who am I?"

"No."

"No, I'm Dad. Can you say daddy?"

" _No._ " CJ smiled and giggled like it was hilarious.

Charlie grumbles under his breath and then pulls out his phone going back to a picture that he had of his ex-wife. "Who's that CJ?

"Mommy!"

"Right, that's mommy. Isn't she pretty? Now you know if there's a mommy then there has to be a—"

"No!"

Charlie groaned, "Well, I mean you're right but I'm your daddy. Just say daddy, once—for me?"

CJ munched on his pizza and shook his head. "No."

Charlie groans slumping over in his chair. CJ reminded him of Santana, she was probably amused by this. He sighs and flips open his own pizza box, grabbing a slice, and bringing it to his mouth. He doesn't even need to look to swat Max's hand away from trying to pick at his toppings. "No. You and CJ have your _own_ pizza."

"But you can't eat that entire pizza by yourself!" Max insisted, his dad always had the best toppings on his pizza.

"Like hell I can't, it's my cheat day, I have this pizza and two tubs of Ben & Jerry's in the freezer. You and CJ can share one. So long as CJ remembers to use a spoon." Charlie reaches over and taps CJ in the nose causing him to crinkle his nose, immediately Charlie grins and pretends to grab CJ's nose. "Got your nose."

CJ dropped his pizza onto the plate and immediately touched his nose, "No you don't!" He laughs though and goes back to eating his pizza.

Charlie sighs and shakes his head. "Oh, guess who they want on the cover for the next 2k game?" Charlie prods his son, smiling when Max also drops his pizza.

" _No_ way! What's your rating going to be?"

Charlie puffs out his chest, "93, I'm the fifth highest ranked player, we can play it of course after I put CJ down for bed tonight. We'll watch some movies together and play some educational games but then Max I'm going to beat you badly, so don't go crying to your mother."

Max snorted patting his dad's arm with his greasy hand, "You _suck_ at video games, so when I win you can't complain to mom." Tonight was going to be _awesome_. His dad was the best.

~O~

"And did you _see_ what Carlie Clarke wore to the dance? I can't believe they even let her in." Bree scoffs and picks up some pretzels from the snacks Bela's mom laid out.

Bela laughs along with her friends and only feels a little guilty about it. She hadn't thought what Carlie was wearing was that bad, it just wasn't as expensive as the dress that she had worn. But Bree was the most popular girl in school and she wasn't going to get on Bree's bad side.

Bree looked at Bela closely, aware that she hadn't laughed as quickly as the other girls. "So Bela, where does your dad live? Your parent's are still divorced right?"

Bela nods and tries to pretend it's not a big deal. "Yeah, they got divorced a while ago."

"So where does he live?" Elaine asks, picking up on Bree's unanswered question.

"He's really close to Quicken Loans Arena. His apartment downtown is _huge_. He's even got his own private elevator to his floor." Bela smiled pleased at the chatter that filled the room. They were in awe of her parents star power it was her only real in.

"You're so lucky." Bree groans. "Divorced parents plus the fact that Bobby couldn't take his eyes off you all night. _Please_ tell me you are going to make him your boyfriend as soon as possible."

Bela laughs scratching her cheek, "I don't know my dad's like super weird about me dating and stuff, and I really want him to take me to the Dani Harper concert. You know he's dating her right? I met her once before too."

"She's so cool." Elaine murmured. "They're really dating? Do you see her a lot?"

"Sometimes, whenever she's in Ohio." Bela shrugs. She's mostly lying now to seem cool to her friends but she doesn't think they'll really ever figure that out. "I mean my dad has me come over all the time, sometimes even when he's not around, just so that I can have some place to go to get away from my mom. He even gave me a key to his place."

"Really?" Bree pressed moving closer to Bela who stumbles back. "Isn't your dad gone a lot?"

"Yeah, he's on the road half the time and even when he's not he's got like a bunch of places to be. He does photo-shoots and stuff."

"It's not _fair_. Your life is so cool and then we had to have such a lame dance where all the weird kids were allowed to be there too." Bree shook her head. "This probably never would have happened in LA right? I mean I've seen the Rich kids of Beverly Hills, they always had such amazing parties and they had so much fun. No weirdos there."

Bela shrugged, she hadn't really gone to parties like the ones that Bree was talking about she was twelve. She did know a few celebrity kids that were her age but it wasn't that big of a deal. "There are weirdos everywhere. I mean I think my dad is one."

"Your dad is _sexy_ ," Elaine corrects. "Besides everyone thinks their dad is weird. Mine is. I mean but if I had a dad that looked like yours—"

"Okay, _gross_." Bree shook her head glancing at Elaine. "But, Elaine's weird daddy fetish aside I actually have a great idea."

Bela nodded earnestly, she didn't actually know what a fetish was and she didn't want to ask Bree. "What?"

"We should have a party that's _just_ for us. Us and whatever boys are good enough for us to invite. We can do it at your dad's house. Isn't that a great idea?"

Bela froze for a moment, "I mean yeah my dad's place is empty a lot of the time but there is a lot of expensive stuff in there. And there's no way my dad or mom will let me throw a party with _boys_ at my dad's place."

"Well that's why you don't tell them about it _duh_." Bree shook her head as if Bela was an idiot. "I mean you did say you had the key to your father's place right?"

"I do, but—"

"You'll just tell your mom that you're staying at my house and we'll go hang out at your dad's place whenever he's not in town."

"My mom knows his schedule well enough and even if she doesn't my brother has his schedule memorized. He's struggling with his multiplication tables, but he knows which city, which arena, which hotel my dad is at. If I start disappearing every single time my dad is away my mom's not an idiot. She'll figure it out. Like you don't know my mom Bree and if she finds out that I've been throwing a party in my dad's house she will kill me."

"So how do you normally get away to spend time at your dad's house?" Elaine challenged.

Bela frowns at having been caught in her lie. It was bad, sure, but she could theoretically play her parents against each other. Her parents hadn't really talked to each other since the divorce. "Well my dad has two drivers. I just let him know that I want to stop by and he lets me use them. My mom thinks that since it is my dad's driver that he's in the car." They seem to believe her and she swallows relieved.

"Well, I still don't see why you can't tell them that you're staying at my place. My mom doesn't really care she's a bitch. She doesn't even know where I am now." Bree shrugged.

Bela bit her lip feeling everyone's eyes on her, "I mean I'm not saying we can't. I'm saying that we can't do it every single time my dad is out of town. She'll get suspicious."

Bree squeals and Elaine starts talking rapidly about all the people she thinks they should invite, all while Bela has a terrible feeling that something is going to go very wrong. Maybe if it was just a few people everything would be okay. It's not like her parents were on speaking terms.


	19. Chapter 19

Thanksgiving had always been her favorite and most hated time of the year, it was right up there with Christmas. Especially since she and Charlie had _made_ it, they had always hosted thanksgiving. They were the ones that had plenty of rooms for both the Fabray and the Lopez clan. So it had become a tradition to host the major holidays, one that hadn't been done the previous year. She hadn't felt particularly thankful what with her divorce and getting her kids settled. The kids hadn't felt like celebrating either. Charlie had been working and it had been easier to simply cancel everything. But this year was different, this year she was bringing the entire family together and the house was filled to the brim with people.

Her parents and Judy Fabray had arrived this morning, bearing gifts. While Rachel and Quinn and Brittany had shown up last night much to the kids enjoyment. Even CJ seemed to be enjoying all the attention that he was getting. He had been babbling to everyone and anyone who would listen and getting carried as much as he could. Max was attempting to sneak food before everything was ready and she needed to keep a watchful eye on the desserts that had littered the table. Bela was probably bothering her aunts, everything seemed to be going well.

"Are you _sure_ you don't need any help?" Judy asked tapping the island.

Santana flicked her eyes over to her former mother-in-law and flashes her a smile. "I'm sure. I did most of the prep work during the week to make it easier, the kids helped." She's quiet for a moment, noticing Max peeking into the kitchen to see if she was distracted. "Though keeping Max and the kids from getting into the desserts would be helpful."

" _Mom!"_

"No Max, you'll ruin your dinner. Why don't you keep your abuelo company, he's probably all by himself surrounded by so many women," Santana offers flashing him a smile noticing her mother entering the kitchen.

"Oh your father loves it," Maribel shook her head and smiled. "Are you sure—"

"I'm sure," Santana grabbed a towel to dry off her hands. She'd need help setting the massive table but everything for once was running smoothly.

"Speaking of being surrounded by women, is there any chance your Sebastian will join us?" Judy asks. Honestly, she wished Santana would find a way to work it out with her son, but she also didn't want to stop her from being happy.

"He isn't exactly _my_ Sebastian." Santana points out.

"He did meet the kids." Maribel retorts, agreeing with Judy. "That is a big deal on its own, but—"

"No, he's not coming. We both agreed it was probably too soon." Santana interrupts, especially with Max not quite pleased with his presence. "We are going to do something low key tomorrow, but I wanted to keep today as drama free as possible."

Maribel and Judy share a glance when Santana turns her back to fiddle with the food. Judy sighs and asks the question that all of them are thinking. "Does that mean you are expecting my son today?"

Santana shrugs not a hundred percent sure what she was feeling at the moment. "If he was coming he'd have been here by now. I told Max and Bela to tell him about today, but I haven't heard from him." It wasn't as if he had a game to be at tonight, it was one of the rare weeks where he had a few days in between his games, both of which were at home. He had no reason _not_ to come.

Judy sighed, she knew her son well enough to know that if he wasn't here at this time, then he probably wasn't coming. Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was the only two holidays that she got to see all of her children in one place but if things were going to continue as they were, then it was probable that she was going to need to go out of her way to visit her son. "I know how difficult it is to be divorced during the big holidays, but it does get better," she promises flashing Santana a knowing smile.

She wished it was true, it certainly didn't feel true. "Well, it's probably for the best if we wanted a drama free day. All Charlie and I do is fight over everything, and the kids most definitely don't need to see that." She said briskly, trying to brush it off. She's not sure why it bothers her so much that Charlie chose not to come. She should have expected it.

Brittany popped her head into the kitchen, "Chuck's not coming? Maybe I can still invite my boyfriend over then? Can I?"

Santana frowned at Brittany, she had seen Brittany's boyfriends over the years and she wasn't sure if she wanted to have some stranger in her house. "Who is your boyfriend?"

"Mike Chang. He—uh works with Charlie." Brittany flashed Santana a grin.

Judy groans. Trust Brittany to start dating _another_ one of Charlie's teammates. It never ended well, Santana shakes her head and sighs, "Whatever. Actually it will probably be a good distraction for Max. As long as you're okay with a seven-year-old shadow, be my guest."

Quinn frowned and moved to the kitchen, "Wait, what do you mean Charlie's not coming? Where the hell is he?"

"He probably thought Max was pity inviting him." Santana defends her ex-husband almost reflexively. She should have just grown up and called Charlie to invite him herself. This had to stop and they had to figure out a way to both parent their kids. She didn't want her kids growing up with a halfway present father. "I'm sure he's just busy, he's got a new agent. So I'm not sure what his plans are or where he is—"

Bela shrugs, coming up behind her aunt. "I don't know but he was in LA earlier this week."

Max slips into the kitchen as well, hoping that while everyone is distracted he can sneak some food. He manages to grab two cookies while everyone was distracted. "Why? He didn't have a game."

Bela rolls her eyes, "I don't know, Dani had pictures of Dad all over her instagram."

Quinn winced and looked over at Santana, she hadn't meant to drag that into it but Santana merely shrugged. "Well, it's good to know what his priorities are," Santana manages to get out feeling a lump in her throat. She didn't know why she kept defending him.

"Is that why Russell has been coming around again? Because Charlie has a new agent?" Judy asks trying to shift the topic immediately. She didn't know who this Dani person was even though her granddaughter had attempted to inform her on the topic.

"Wait? Charlie fired dad?" Brittany asked looking up from her phone. "Since when?"

Santana shrugged she wasn't going to defend him anymore, not when it blew up in her face like this. "Ask him, I just found out recently. She was probably the person behind the whole billboard thing." She rubs her temples for a moment, before flicking her eyes at Quinn. "Where's CJ?"

"Rachel has him, I think he likes listening to her sing to him and you know how much Rachel loves an attentive audience—and mom if dad's sniffing around he wants something. So just tell him where to go jump off," Quinn turns looking at her mother. Her mom had fallen for Russell's 'I've changed please forgive me' routine one too many times for her liking.

"I am an adult, Quinn." Judy smirks, amused at her daughter's protectiveness. She knows it's borne out of Quinn's own relationship with Russell and she can't help but wish that Russell wouldn't look at Quinn like some pariah. But that was a battle that she would never win.

"Yes, well adults sometimes make bad decisions and our father is the _motherlode_ of bad decisions."

"That's not a hundred percent accurate, he did give me three wonderful children."

" _Two_ wonderful children, and—" Quinn stops, ready to say something about Charlie until she remembers that both Bela and Max are in the room, "—a Charlie." She settles on.

Santana sighs and closes her eyes before counting to ten before opening them. "Well, if you want to know where Charlie is call him. Or you could tell everyone here the reason why you and Rachel have been so giddy and why you've been treating Rachel like an invalid. She's a hobbit not a—"

A smirk crossed Quinn's features, as she puffed out her chest in pride. She had wanted her whole family to be here, but this was good enough. "Rachel's pregnant."

"Quinn! We were supposed to tell them when we were all saying what we are thankful for." Rachel chastises even though she's still beaming widely. She loves how excited her wife is at the prospect of being a parent. She puts CJ down and watches him head straight for Max who was working on his third cookie.

"More grandkids?" Judy asked perking up and smiling widely.

Max crinkled his nose at this, "I'll still be your favorite right grandma?" He pauses when his brother tries to eat the cookies in his hand. "CJ _no_ get your own cookies."

That's enough to draw Santana's attention. "Max. No more cookies."

Max looks over at his mother letting CJ have his cookie as he reaches for another set of cookies. Before his mom can stop him he grabs as many as he can and immediately runs out of the living room. "Come on CJ, we've got what we came for."

CJ toddles after him while Santana rolls her eyes. Those two are going to run her ragged, she's sure of it.

"So when are we going to meet this Sebastian?" Rachel inquires pointedly. Bela has already filled her in on Santana's disastrous attempt to introduce her new boyfriend. She ignores Santana's glare and just waits expectantly. She's known Santana long enough not to be bothered by her rough exterior.

"Sebastian and I are taking it slow, there's nothing more to really say about that. We both agreed that this might not be the best time to meet the family, but I also thought that Charlie was coming over. Either way, we're not rushing anything." Santana exhales. "Now, everybody out. I need to finish everything. Bela can you set the table, I'll give it another half hour before we can all gather for food. So if Mike is coming, then we'd better get going." She focuses in on this challenge, determined to make the holiday perfect for her kids. There wasn't a lot she could control, but _this_ day would be perfect.

~O~

Charlie threw the microwaved meal down onto the counter, wincing at the loud clunk that it made. He sighed and read the instructions carefully, he didn't want to be one of those people who were forced to go out on Thanksgiving because they didn't want to be alone. He had already spent nearly ten hours helping prep food, and serving it to the homeless in Cleveland and signing a lot of autographs. He was exhausted and his cheeks hurt from all the smiling that he had been forced to do. Sue had said that she was cleaning up his image. But, he was sure that she had another reason for running him ragged today of all days.

He shuts the meal in the microwave turning it to the prescribed time before slamming his thumb against the _start_ button. The little lightbulb turns on illuminating his dark apartment, and he rubs his eyes before reaching into his cabinet grabbing the first bottle he can find. He didn't normally drink during the season but he could spend tomorrow recovering before he had to get to his next game. He grabs a glass from another cabinet and pours himself a drink.

He brings it to his lips, before pausing. "It's Thanksgiving, so I should at least say what I'm grateful for," he mumbles to himself. "I'm thankful for the money, that I've got three beautiful kids—that I'm healthy." He shrugs his shoulders and takes a sip of the liquid feeling it burn on it's way down. He coughs, and puts the glass down.

He had spent all day trying not to think about what his family was doing. It had been easy while he had been doing food prep, and had been surrounded by people. But now he was on his own, and all he could think about was being near his kids. Thanksgiving had always been one of his favorite holidays, all the food the drinking, and he always had so much to be thankful for. He had missed it last year and it was obvious that it was now a thing. It had been difficult hearing his kids go on about all the things he would be missing out on, and even worse when Bela had told him that Santana wanted him to know. She was mocking him.

It wasn't fair. He cheated, he was an asshole, sure. But at some point, didn't she have to get over it? Did he have to be punished for the rest of their lives?

He finishes the glass in his hand and pours himself another. It would be his last drink he needed to go over the playbook and watch the tape from their last game. He sighed and swallowed another glass before putting the bottle away. Focusing on work would help. He knew if he didn't put all his energy somewhere he was going to unravel and fast.

~O~

Santana glances over her shoulder, glad that everyone is practically comatose so that she doesn't have to worry about someone worrying where she slunk off to. She pulls up Bela's Instagram account and only feels mildly guilty as she quickly finds Dani's profile.

"I'm too old for this shit." Santana mutters. She's always been more technologically savvy than her husband or her co-stars, but she also doesn't really understand the desire to have the world privy to every detail of her life. But here she is, cyber-stalking her ex-husband. She doesn't even know why she's doing it, Charlie was _allowed_ to have a life. Still, it doesn't stop her from seeing Dani's most recent postings. Most of it is stupid, her meeting with her fans what she had eaten, a few selfies—and one of Charlie passed out at the very least shirtless, drooling on the pillow.

"Not dating my ass." Santana grumbles. It was so _obvious_ that they were dating, and yet Charlie would deny it anytime she confronted him with the evidence. She sighs, even with the picture evidence, this didn't prove that he had spent time with Dani today. Which meant that she still didn't know where he was. Ever since the _incident_ Charlie had been rather quiet on social media, getting someone else to maintain all of his posts and tweets for him. This was no different.

She startles when a knock sounds at the door to the den. "Hi. Sorry—Max fell asleep so I laid him down on the couch beside Brittany." Mike scratches the back of his head. This was a little awkward, but he wasn't about to hang out at Charlie's ex-wife's house any longer than he was welcome.

Santana smirks and puts her tablet face down on the table in front of her. "Oh, sorry—he's been so thrilled to have you here."

Mike smiled he could tell that Max had enjoyed his presence. "He knows a _lot_ of facts about basketball and he attempted to show me how his dad does that damn ankle break of his. I don't think he even knows, but he lectured me anyway on how best to support his dad. He must really love him a lot."

"That's an understatement." Santana scoffs. Mike had been a trooper all day and Max had informed him bluntly that Mike was now his favorite sixth man, like it was the greatest honor that Max could bestow on him. She smiles, she liked him especially for Brittany. She needed someone with a level head, it would probably keep her from making her usual disastrous choices. "Are you heading home? You can stay the night if you wish, I think Brittany would like that."

"I'd like that but we've got an early morning practice tomorrow," Mike admits. "If I stay tonight—well Brittany—"

Santana snorts, "Yeah I know, she won't let you get any sleep tonight."

Mike clears his throat, before glancing away. "Yeah, well, I'll see her tomorrow before she heads back to LA."

Santana studies him for a moment, "Alright, I'll let her know." He had it for Brittany bad, but so did most people who fell in love with her. Maybe Brittany was finally ready to settle down, it was the first time she had ever invited a guy to one of these family events. She nods, and pulls up Charlie's facebook page.

Mike nods knowing that the conversation has run its natural course. He turns to leave and pauses at the doorway, "Hey, uh—Santana?"

"Hmm?" Santana asked not even looking up from her phone.

"I know, you're divorced and all but—" Mike paused for a moment feeling Santana's eyes on him. He was in dangerous territory but he needed to know. Charlie was the _star_ of the team and he had Burt's ear, a few words and he'd be up for trade to some small team. "Is he really okay with—you know—me and Britt?"

Santana softened after he had finished asking his question. "No, Charlie really doesn't care who Britt sleeps with. In fact, he prefers _not_ to think about it." Santana responds she pauses for a moment debating what to say next. "He's _protective_ of her though, so as long as she's _never_ the subject of any locker room talks, then you'll be fine. He'll just keep on ignoring it unless it becomes an issue. So don't drag him into it and you'll be fine."

Mike nods and lets out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. It didn't seem like it was something that Charlie would do but he needed to make sure before he paraded it in front of his face. "Thanks."

Santana nods and turns her attention back to her tablet, flipping through his facebook page. Another dead end, she looks up at Mike finally caving, even if she truly didn't want to drag him into the drama between her and Charlie but she needed to know. "Do you know where he is today? He was supposed to be here."

Mike makes a face for a moment, he should have just kept his mouth shut instead of asking Santana the question that had been on his mind all day. "Uh—"

"I know he is your teammate." She rushes to explain, "I just—I thought he'd be here." She admits. This divorce sucks and not just because of all the fighting that they did.

Mike sighs, "Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure. I mean right now, he's probably working out or something. He does that a lot these days like, Burt thinks he's just dedicated and he is, he's got that drive to win but—I think he just does it to take his mind off things." He's quiet and then shrugs, it's not like this info is damming or anything of the sort. "He never said that he had plans at all, like when the guys were talking about it."

Santana glanced at the time it was only after seven if she wanted to go interrupt him she could still do that and make it back in time before anyone noticed. _Probably_. "I see, well I was just thinking about bringing him something to eat. Can I still get into the arena this late?"

"Yeah, and he should be there working out." Mike winces. There was a danger that came from over practicing, especially when a player's style was as hard on the knees as Charlie's was— "Look, I can call see where he is for you if that's all you want to do is bring him food."

Santana shakes her head, the last thing she needed was to get Charlie's team involved. "I have a key to his place, I'll just stop by and put a dish in his fridge or on the counter or something. Thank you though."

Mike frowns hoping that he hasn't just done something wrong. But it was the holidays and no one deserved to be alone. "Alright, it was nice meeting you and your family Santana."

"It was nice meeting you too Mike," Santana says getting up to walk him out. If Mike was right she could probably get in and out of his apartment without to much of a fuss or a fight. She was tired of fighting with him on every little thing.

~O~

Santana sighed shifting the bag filled with Tupperware between her hands. She had noticed Charlie's car in the parking garage downstairs but hadn't thought much of it. Charlie had at least two separate drivers that took him to and from practices and to major events. He was probably practicing like Mike said he was, which was a good thing. She didn't want this to be like all the other times that she had come over and they had fought. She was tired of fighting with him. So the plan was to slip in and slip out without him really being the wiser.

She didn't even know why she was doing this, all they did was fight and he was the dick who didn't show up. But all Charlie could make was breakfast food and she didn't even want to know what he had used as a substitute for a proper thanksgiving dinner. She sighs as the elevator dings and the doors slide open and she makes her way to Charlie's apartment grabbing the keys from her purse. She had finally gotten around to simply having Bela's key copied, there had been a guy on set.

She juggles the door and her armful of leftovers sliding into Charlie's apartment and shutting the door quietly behind her. She freezes when she realizes the television is on, playing the latest sports highlights and she swallows before moving to the kitchen and placing the food on the island. She twists her face at the frozen dinner box that's just sitting there with a frozen dinner on top of it. Only a bite had been taken from it and promptly spat back out from the looks of it and she shakes her head.

She peeks her head into the living room and sees her ex-husband on the couch clad in nothing but boxers as he slept, a little trail of drool pooling on the pillow beside him. "Charlie?" She asks, hesitatingly. This really isn't her place anymore but she didn't want Charlie passed out after drowning his sorrows in booze.

He snores as if in answer to her and she rolls her eyes before sneaking toward him and helping him off the couch. He's much too big for her to carry him completely, but thankfully he complies almost by muscle memory. "Come on, let's get you to bed." She grunts as he groans but stumbles along with her help.

She lets him fall face first onto the bed when they get there and sighs adjusting his body the best she can to make sure he would indeed wake up. She's about to pull away when she feels a hand wrap around her wrist stopping her. She tenses again, turning back to him expecting to see him awake but his hand loosens and falls back on the bed. He was still very much out of it and she shakes her head. This had been a mistake, she shouldn't be here and she shouldn't care as much as she did.

Today was supposed to be a day where they finally got their shit together but he hadn't shown up. How much longer would this be their lives? With another sigh she leans forward and kisses Charlie's forehead before pulling the blankets on top of him. She would just put the food in the fridge and head back home. "Why can't I get over you, even when you're an ass?"

"I love you too." Charlie mumbles.

Santana tenses up, her entire body freezing at his words. He couldn't be serious and _definitely_ didn't mean it. How could he? "Charlie?" She asks softly only for Charlie to snore again.

"It figures." She rolls her eyes and slips out of his bedroom. This was a mistake, but she would sneak some of the Gatorade she was sure he had somewhere in his fridge along with a couple of aspirin and put it beside his bed before she left.


	20. Chapter 20

Santana was trying to keep her mind off the series pilot that would be debuting tonight and even though she was nervous she would not let her nervous energy get the better of her. Sebastian and her parents were coming over for a viewing party so she needed to make sure she had plenty of food.

Taping had gone well and the show seemed to test well with HGTVs target audiences, so she had to hope that the show would be a success. She and Sam worked well together despite their different backgrounds and even though she hadn't mustered up the courage to ask Charlie for help, Mike had presented a signed ball to the kid in their final episode on behalf of his team. It had been heart wrenching to watch and Santana was pleased with what they had been able to accomplish.

She sighs as she finishes putting the food into the trunk of her car and closing it with a bang before moving the cart to the cart corral. She heads back to her car and slides into the driver's seat glancing back at her son who was banging on the front of his car seat. "Alright, let's get you home so you can have your snack and I can put you down for your nap."

" _No_."

Santana rolled her eyes, it really was his favorite word. He seemed so pleased that he could say it as often as he did. "You know one of these days you're going to have to say more than that to your father. I think you're breaking his heart," Santana informed her son, as she started the engine. The rear-view parking assistant turning on immediately so she could see what was behind her. She was about to move when the sound of her phone began to ring through the speakers immediately putting an end to whichever version of Kids Bop she had been forced to listen to for the umpteenth time. She gratefully pushes the button on her steering as she reverses and pulls out of the parking space. "Yes?"

 _'I was wrong.'_

The voice combined with the phrase is enough to give Santana pause. "Well I never thought I'd hear you say that, Yentl. But why exactly are you saying my three favorite words?"

 _'Charlie's song to you—frankly it's amazing and I'm going to be shocked if he doesn't win a Grammy.'_

Santana blinked, she knew nothing about a song. Charlie only sang in the shower, and he mumbled the words to himself. "What _song_?"

 _'The song that he did with Dani Harper, it's been playing non-stop on the radio up here in New York. I assume it's the same everywhere. I was flipping through the radio stations_ — _you know how I like to keep current with what's on the radio and I can't believe what I heard. I mean you could hear all that emotion in his voice, you know back when I was in glee club we used to_ —'

"Oh god, please don't tell me that you convinced him that it was a good idea to _sing_ his feelings on the radio. What the fu—" Santana glances back at CJ who was playing with one of his toys. "What the fudge is wrong with you?" The last thing she needed was CJ yelling fuck when he talked to people.

' _I didn't do anything, though I would have given him vocal lessons if I had known he was planning this. I mean his voice is perfectly fine but I know he could do better_ — _how have you not heard the song yet?'_

"What song?" Santana asked obliviously.

 _'I'm honestly surprised that he was able to hold his own, Dani Harper has powerhouse vocals when she wants but he managed to keep up_ —'

" _Hobbit_. What. Song?" Santana repeats getting irritated.

Instead of answering, Santana hears Rachel rustle around for a moment before music begins to play.

 _'She knows_

 _Dirty secrets that I keep_

 _Does she know it's killing me?_

 _She knows; she knows_

 _D-d-does she know_

 _Another's hand have touched my skin_

 _I won't tell her where I've been'_

Santana slams her foot down on the break, pulling the car to a screeching halt. She hears a few horns but ignores them, trying to focus. How was she supposed to feel about this? Did he do this for _her_? No. There was no way that her ex-husband was the one singing. Her heart lurches at the thought of Charlie actually writing a song—or performing a song—or whatever for her before she snaps herself out of her own naivety. "Is this some joke?" She asks mostly to herself.

 _'Whatever it is, their vocal compatibility is off the charts—'_

Santana hangs up the phone before Rachel can say anything else. The cars honk again around her and she just feels so fucking stupid. Of course this was a joke, and just like always she was the punchline for yet another trip down public humiliation lane.

She gripped the steering wheel tighter. Did he not care at all? How many more times was he going to drag her in front of the public voyeurs? She hit her head against the back of the headrest and lets up off the gas, pulling the car back into the flow of traffic as she felt anger fueled by hurt start to burn inside her. Fuck him. She needs answers and she's going to get them if it kills her.

~O~

"This is by far the best cod that I've ever had, you continue to out-do yourself in taking me places to eat," Sue informed Charlie who was picking at his food. "You're the one that decided to order vegan eggplant involtini, they were serving burgers." Sue points out watching him crinkle his nose as he took a bite.

"Not a cheat day," Charlie admits. "I have that Men's Health magazine photoshoot coming up remember? I think I'd like to do it with my shirt on—"

"You know, women also buy this magazine right, they're more likely to buy it if they see something that they like, which is _you_ appearing shirtless. Do you know that you're on the short-list for People's sexiest man alive?" Sue pressed immediately shutting that down immediately. His brand was on a meteoric rise and with the proper cultivation.

"I have a daughter who will be mortified by this, I don't think I want to be on that list, she's already threatening to not talk to me if I do anymore underwear ads like the one I did before." Charlie lets out a bit of a laugh.

Sue rolled her eyes, "Your daughter isn't going to care about some men's health magazine. Look I understand your apprehension but you have no clue what this is doing for your career. You're not _just_ an NBA player anymore, you're a model, a singer, and if I have my way you'll start appearing in movie soon. Off-season of course. People are noticing you and while that is a double edged sword given your past indiscretions, you're reaching out to more and more fans. Which is why I have some news about the sneaker front."

Charlie forced another bite into his mouth before wiping his lips. "Under Armor is ready to talk to me about my own line?"

"Not just Under Armor, after your song debuted at number five Nike and Adidas started to call me, wondering what your situation is. They both made offers, but once again a sneaker isn't on the table they just wanted you to sign with their companies. They're offering quite a bit of money. Like quite a bit of money, but it's just to wear their shoes."

"That's not what I want though, what I want—holy shit that's a lot of money." Charlie's jaw dropped at the paper that Sue slid across the table.

"I'm aware, they will choose the shoes that you wear during games, you know standard shoe contract and you can't be seen wearing any other brand. You can't even _say_ another brand which is problematic given your current clothing line with Under Armor."

"Under Armor took a chance with me I owe them some loyalty—that's really a lot of money." Charlie said staring at the numbers again. "Loyalty is important, do you think Under Armor can match these numbers? Cause even half is still a lot of money, plus I'll get royalties right?"

Sue studies her client for a moment, he was a good man. He wasn't to greedy let alone cut-throat which was probably why his father had taken advantage of him. "I'll enter negotiations with them, however I have more good news. Gatorade, and a few restaurants want to start endorsing you. Also Ford and Chevrolet have both heard about your affinity for their cars, and they want to endorse you as well. To be quite frank with you Charlie, I have a huge list that we're going to need to go over. Some of these are in direct competition with one another so you need to decide which one you're going to support."

Charlie nods, "Give me two days to look over them, see what my kids think you know? Bela wasn't the only one who wasn't pleased with my new modelling career. You should have heard the messages my sisters left for me." This time he was going to do it right and make sure that he didn't have a bunch of angry women banging or barging into his apartment. Santana, Bela, Quinn, Brittany—his mother, he just needed some peace in his life and maybe the right decisions would get them all off his back.

~O~

Charlie fiddles with the lock to his apartment still in awe at how well his meeting with Sue went. He had some choices to make and they weren't going to be easy. Gatorade wanted to do a commercial which he would probably do, it was probably the least offensive thing that he could imagine doing. "So, I need to do a pro and con's list and then I need to talk to Bela and Max to see what they think," he mumbled to himself. "Then after I'll talk to—Santana?"

Santana quirks her brow challengingly and despite being divorced for over almost two years he felt a chill run through him at her silent fury.

He shifts awkwardly and notices CJ playing with his toys. "CJ—my son, my flesh and blood—"

"You are not using _our son_ as a human shield." Santana snaps at him harshly. "How could you?"

"How could I?" Charlie frowned and scratches his cheek, a huge part of him wondering if he could inch to a space behind CJ who was sucking away on his pacifier completely oblivious to the fact that his father was about to be murdered behind him. "What I do this time?"

"This time—is this all just some big joke to you?" Tears of hurt and anger burn at her eyes. "The stupid _song_ that—"

"You mean the song where I admit that I fucked up?" Charlie interrupts. "Did you even _listen_ to the song? The entire song?"

Santana bristles at the accusation. No, she hadn't but she'd been too angry to really focus on anything other than stewing in her rage and hurt. "Of course I listened to it."

"And you're _mad_. You're _mad_ that I still love you and want to make this work?" Charlie shakes his head disbelievingly. He should have known. " _Fuck_. I cheated, and for some reason you got the brunt of it. You were made to be the bad guy in this mess and I was trying to remind everyone in the world that it wasn't you. It was me. I was the one that fucked up."

" _Fuck_ , _fuck, fuck!"_ CJ repeats happily as both his parents turn to look at him horrified looks on their face.

"CJ, _no!_ " Charlie gasps horrified.

"Fuck no." CJ grins like he knows exactly what he's saying.

Santana rolls her eyes. Yet another disaster that was _his_ fault. "Great, thank you for that."

"What do you want from me? I'm _trying—"_

"Well stop. Because _you_ trying just keeps throwing me in the spotlight. You realize that my show debuts tonight? But yet again, it's _all_ about you and bringing our family into the damn spotlight."

"What show?" Charlie frowns and then shakes his head. That wasn't the point right now. "The song is about two people, it's a duet and it's about their relationship dying because someone— _me_ —cheated. No one wants to admit that the relationship is dying and no one knows how to fix it. That's what the song is about. I didn't humiliate you, if anything given my _history_ I sang about what a piece of—" Charlie trails off and looks at CJ who was watching them, "I sang about what a terrible husband I was. Just like I _admit_ that it's my fault that I didn't come home. Listen to the song."

"I'm not going to listen to the song."

"I thought you said you already did, isn't that why you're here? To yell at me because you didn't like the song I sang?" Charlie crosses his arms over his chest. If CJ wasn't right there he would assume that Santana came for another reason. "Look maybe I should have given you the heads up before it came out, but I let Dani's people handle that shi—" Charlie trails off and clears his throat. "Stuff."

Santana frowns at having been caught, Charlie was always good at seeing through her bluster. "Why should I listen to a song that's clearly your version about our relationship. Do you know how weird it is that you're doing this with your new girlfriend?"

"For the last time, Dani is not my girlfriend. More like the little sister that I never wanted. I always wanted a brother." Instead he had gotten Quinn and Brittany. Charlie fishes out his phone and flips through it before playing the song that had been sent to him. "There. Listen."

Santana rolls her eyes as the music comes on and instead of actually listening she just feels herself grow more and more furious. How _dare_ he try to act like he has some moral high ground? They're halfway through the song before she sighs. "Look Charlie, you're right. Congrats, you can sing. _Thank you_ for opening old wounds for other people's entertainment."

"That wasn't—"

"That's exactly what you did. Singing it with your bed warmer? Weird as hell, and if you don't think that people are going to see, then you're an idiot." Santana shakes her head. She's an idiot for thinking that she could get answers. "This isn't worth my time."

Charlie stopped the song and looked at his ex-wife reaching for her only to have Santana pull away from him. "Santana—wait."

Santana picks up CJ and storms out of the apartment without a backward glance.

Charlie runs a hand through his hair and watches as his door slams shut and sighs. Nothing he did seemed to reach her, perhaps it hadn't been his best idea but still, he had tried something. " _Fuck_."

~O~

It really was a god-awful song, but that didn't stop her from listening to it the entire car-ride home, skipping over Dani's parts and simply listening to Charlie sing. It was frustrating even as she put the groceries away and made a snack for CJ who still remembered his new favorite word. The song was on a neverending loop, even as she began to prepare for tonight's festivities.

She couldn't help but look at the social media buzz for the song. It was really just a preview for the headlines and interrogations that she'd have to deal with for the next six months.

 _'OMG this song is so romantic.' #iknowwhatyoudidlastsummer_

 _'TAKE HIM BACK SANTANA! HE'S SoRrY'_ _#ChartanaFoRLIFE_

Santana closed the twitter feed the moment the door slammed shut and moved to the island as Bela and Max came into the house. "Hey, how was school?"

Bela shrugged heading straight for the fridge to get something to drink while Max grinned and dropped his backpack onto the ground. "It was fun, we played baseball in gym and the coach said I was really good at pitching," he informed his mother bluntly, before also getting bored and going to find his brother. He always had snacks around him, including baby cookies, he liked them a lot.

Santana rolled her eyes, she didn't even know why she bothered her kids weren't really into the whole sharing things with her. She looks at Bela who was rooting in the fridge for something to eat and she sighs. "Have you heard Dani's new song?" There was a loud bang as Bela drops a can of soda and whips around turning to her.

"What new song?" Bela demanded immediately, frowning how had her _mom_ heard Dani's new song before she had? The world was clearly going mad.

"Your aunt Rachel decided to share it with me this morning," Santana adjusts the music so Bela can hear it on the Bluetooth speakers that she has set up in the kitchen. She likes to listen to music as she cooks most nights and this is no exception. She watches her daughter listening to the song and even though she wants to ignore the Dani parts in the song she resists the urge to simply skip.

Bela grins and looks up at her mom once the song finishes. " _See_ I told you she had talent. That song was _so_ romantic."

"Really?" Santana asks, Bela turned twelve in January, which meant that her opinion was suspect anyway. "Why do you think the song is romantic?"

"Because they _love_ each other, even if he did something bad you can tell he really loves her, and she's really angry at hurt at him but loves him too." Bela said shaking her head and looking at her mom as if it were obvious.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Impressive, now I know you have no excuse to be getting a C in English." Santana comments and Bela flushes looking away. Santana bites her lip that had been a low blow even for her, Bela was actually sitting down with her tutors every weekend and she was now handing in her homework again. "I'm sorry, I'm just not sure how I feel about this song."

"Because you hate Dani?" Bela asks reaching for her mom's phone so she can play the song again.

"I don't _know_ Dani so I don't _hate_ her. I just don't like her and I don't know if I like this song because—"

"Isn't that dad?" Max asked chewing on some Cheerios that he had swiped from CJ when he wasn't looking. His bowl was nearly half empty as he watched Yo Gabba Gabba. "Oh and mom, CJ said a _really_ bad word."

"Of course not, dad can't _sing_." Bela responded as if it were obvious.

Santana shook her head, "Well, that word that CJ learned, it was from your dad so blame him. I thought letting him watch Yo Gabba Gabba would I don't know erase that word from his dictionary, I was wrong." Santana sighed wondering how she was going to explain that to her parents. "Max can you switch it to Baby Einstein when that episode of Yo Gabba Gabba is done?"

"Okay, but can I get some Cheerios? And you're wrong Bela, that's dad."

"Dad can't—" Bela turns to her mom and her jaw drops when her mom nods in affirmation. "No."

"Unfortunately it's your father," Santana says rubbing her forehead.

"Ew, _gross_. Mom he's _ruining my life_." Bela exploded. How could he do that to her? What was Bree and all her friends going to think.

Santana shot her daughter a flat look, "Bela, I love you deeply but this whole over dramatic thing that you do? It's not a good look for you. You know most other kids would sort of think it's cool that your dad knows a pop-star and can sing."

Bela crinkled her nose, her mother had a point. In its own way her dad was sort of cool. "It would be if my friends didn't have this weird crush on him! It's gross and this is only going to make it worse."

"Again, you probably need new friends. Your father is a celebrity; people are always going to find him attractive no matter what he does. But if you want to complain to your father about _ruining_ your life, you know his phone number go whine to him about it. But you have to do that _after_ you finish your homework." Santana nods towards the island. "So sit and get to work."

Bela huffs but grabs her bag and empties it out on the island. Her mom _always_ made her do her homework in front of her these days. "I'm just not going to talk to him."

Santana rolls her eyes and flicks her attention to Max who is now carrying CJ's Cheerios bowl and munching on it. "That was your brother's snack."

Max shrugged, "So does that mean that dad is a rock star too?"

"No. It means your dad has far too much time on his hands," Santana responds with a shake of her head before frowning slightly. "You need to work on your homework too Max, your grandparents will be here soon and if you want to have fun with your abuelo, then get it done." She sighed, it was going to be a long day today but hopefully both her parents and Sebastian wouldn't bring up the song and whatever Charlie's goal was.


	21. Chapter 21

Santana sips her wine, smiling as she listens to her dad recount his favorite parts of her show. They had decided to change the episode order around with the finale becoming the season opener. It was the great thing about doing a scripted reality show like this one. The order didn't really matter, and Max had cheered the loudest when he had seen Mike on the screen.

"I can't believe you managed to get their house looking that nice on _that_ budget. It looks— _stylish_. You know like it's more expensive than it really is," Sebastian said glancing at Santana. "So how about doing my place next?"

Santana snorted, Sebastian had expensive tastes which was fine. "Expensive doesn't always mean _comfortable_. I thought it did, you know for all that money I thought that I was spending I assumed that it'd be comfortable. You just need to know what to look for, and to make sure everything sort of goes together." She had learned it the hard way when Charlie had bitched about a couch that she had purchased. It was the first couch they had ever purchased together. She smiles, shaking her head at how ridiculous he had been. Charlie didn't care what it looked like so long as it was comfortable, and she wasn't going to live in a fancy house that looked like it belonged to a bunch of teenagers. It had been their first fight as a married couple, it was silly and ridiculous and a compromise had been made.

Sebastian smirks at her playfully. "I'll have to take your word for it." He shook his head. He had always been accustomed to a certain level of affluence and comfort. "Maybe I'll have to get you to re-design my place."

Santana smiles with an enthusiasm she doesn't feel. He's her _boyfriend_ and has been for what feels like months. So why does she have a weird pit in her stomach at the thought? "That could be fun," she says with as much enthusiasm as she can muster

Carlos leaned back in his chair, "Mike seems to be a good man, I think he's rather perfect for Brittany don't you? Dependable, I think she needs someone like him I'm a bit disappointed that Charles couldn't do it."

Santana sighed and rolled her eyes, "I didn't even call him, and even if I did call him. Charlie's been all over the country as of late. Endorsements, apparently becoming a musician in his spare time. Growing that _god-awful_ beard of his, so he can delve into that _hipster_ chic that he's been trying to pull off. So I asked Mike instead."

"Song? What song?" Sebastian pressed.

"Just a song he did with his girlfriend, it's no big deal." Santana responded quickly. The last thing she needed was for Sebastian to get jealous over Charlie again or her parents to hear the song and make commentary on that part of her life. "I think he's just doing it to embarrass Bela. 'Mom make him stop embarrassing me—my life is _over_ ,' you know the usual teenage angst."

"You're one to talk," Maribel mutters under her breath.

"I heard that," Santana retorts. "I never went through _any_ of that."

"Cause you were an absolute _darling_ when you were a teenager, what with breaking all the rules and sneaking out and going to parties where you got drunk," Maribel smiles at Sebastian. "Don't believe what she tells you she was a devil during her teenage years. Breaking all the rules all the time, just to get what she wanted."

"I was the _co_ -head cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school, I needed to make my mark," Santana insists. "They made an _unholy_ trinity rule at McKinley. We were infamous!"

"Which is merely code for you Brittany and Quinn were the biggest troublemakers the school had ever seen." Maribel shakes her head. "Don't let her innocent act fool you Sebastian you've got your hands full with this one."

Sebastian grinned and kissed her cheek, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

~O~

Charlie stepped out of his car, running a hand through his hair and making sure that it was in its tight ponytail as he stared at the home in front of him. He had never been inside her house, not really. He had never gotten past the front entrance before his ex-wife was pushing him out as if his presence was going to infect the house. He had managed to convince Max to give him the tour via Facetime, but it wasn't the same. He sighs and pulls off his sunglasses, letting them hang on the front of his shirt as he headed to the front door. He shifts the thick folder to his left hand before reaching forward and pushing the doorbell.

The door swings open and Santana watches as her ex-husband immediately stands up to his full height and flashes her an amused smile, "I'm pretty sure the whole point of living in a gated community like this is to keep the undesirables out," she says flatly staring at him. "What do you want?"

"Oh, you mean I'm not allowed to show up at your house uninvited to complain about how your choices have hurt my image?" Charlie responds.

Santana frowns she hadn't truly been expecting a response like that. Charlie had his moments when he was just as snarky as she was when the mood called for it and she could see that _gleam_ in his eye. The one that was at least one part amusement and two parts mischief. She had seen the same look in Max and CJ's eyes before. CJ generally did it when she was changing his diaper and he decided to let loose and giggle like a maniac, and Max when he was about to do something that he knew would get him in trouble. "What are you talking about?"

"You have no clue what you did? _Shocking_." Charlie drawls slowly, but catches the door when Santana tries to simply close the door in his face. "My point's been made, but the next time you need a _celebrity_ basketball player to show up, then I suggest you don't go for the _sixth man_ , but instead pick up the phone and ask me to do you a favor. I don't like people assuming that I _snubbed_ you, when you didn't even ask and I didn't even know that you had a show in the works. I would have shown up."

Santana scoffed at this, "I'd _love_ to believe that but you didn't show up at Thanksgiving, instead you spent it getting drunk and feeling sorry for yourself."

Charlie rolled his eyes feeling a headache coming on. Why had he thought that this was a _good_ idea? "What are you talking about? You didn't invite me to Thanksgiving. What was I supposed to do? Show up uninvited? Cause a scene in front of you and your boyfriend and my family? I wasn't invited so I went to a homeless shelter and washed dishes and served food, signed some autographs. Better than getting mocked by you about the whole damn affair. I mean I get it I fucked up, but using our kids to mock me about all the fun you guys were having was low." Charlie swallowed his anger. "Look, I'm not here to argue."

Santana blinked, that hadn't been her intention. He was their father and if she thought. "The kids—"

"It doesn't matter, it's done." Charlie interrupted. "We'll figure out what we're going to do about Christmas, I've got a game on Boxing Day, so I can't take the kids that day. But I'll figure out how to get the presents so that they can open it up on Christmas. I can drop them off or have them shipped directly to the house. But, I'm not _here_ to talk about the kids."

Santana frowned, he was setting her up to be the bad guy. Sure she might have gotten ahead of herself and invited Sebastian to spend Christmas dinner with them, but after Charlie's no-show at Thanksgiving she had simply decided to leave it be. If he was going to pretend that the kids hadn't invited him then that was fine and she had no idea where he had gotten it in his head that she was _mocking_ him with the children. "Fine, if you're not here to talk about the kids then _why_ are you here?"

"Endorsements." Charlie explained holding up the folder. "Seeing as you've had a problem with all of my choices, and before I go to the kids—Bela about it. Plus, I'd like to see if any endorsements you have conflict with any of these ones. Or if there's something you know that I don't know about a company. I already separated them into the ones that I want to do and the ones that I don't."

Santana stares at him and opens the door, "Fine, if only because every time you do something I have to deal with the stupid consequences. You know Quinn's still ticked at you about the underwear photo that's outside her apartment."

"She shouldn't be, I helped out with Rachel's fertility treatments." Charlie muttered. He was used to his family hitting him up for cash. Quinn rarely asked him for monetary help but Brittany had absolutely no problem using him as a personal piggy bank sometimes. It was usually when she started a new _expensive_ hobby. He hadn't minded helping Quinn out, the first three treatments had failed and it was something that Quinn wanted more than anything was to have kids of her own with Rachel. All it meant was that he no longer had to buy them Christmas presents ever again. "Must have worked, she didn't hit me up for more cash."

"Rachel's pregnant. They announced it at Thanksgiving." Santana responds flicking her eyes at him.

"Oh. A phone call would have been nice," Charlie shrugs taking a seat at the island as Santana heads to the fridge.

"You don't pick up when Quinn calls."

"Quinn only calls to yell at me or bitch at me. The only reason I knew that she was struggling is because my mother called asking if I could loan her fifteen grand. I of course pressed my mother on the issue because mom has no way of paying me that money back unless she takes a mortgage against the house. She told me about Rachel and I gave Quinn the money. A call would have been nice."

"Quinn _hates_ being indebted to you." Santana reminds him trying to defend Quinn.

"No, Quinn hates being indebted to our father. I'm just an avatar for her annoyance towards him." Charlie shrugged. It was just money, at least they were having a kid. "So endorsements?"

Santana caught the folder that was slid towards her as she put a glass of water down in front of Charlie who eyed the drink suspiciously. "I'm being a gracious host. It's not poison."

"Right," Charlie said studying the glass and then Santana for a moment. She hated him, she had made that abundantly clear.

"For fucks sake—"Santana took the glass of water and took a sip of it before placing the glass back in front of Charlie. "There you go and _no_ that's not some indirect kiss."

"I didn't think it was," Charlie muttered under his breath. He still didn't touch the glass that Santana had given him, instead choosing to watch as Santana tied her own hair back and opened the folder, she paused for a moment and reached into her purse which was nearby and pulled out some reading glasses before putting them on. "When did you get those?"

"After CJ was born, I only need them for reading." Santana replied without looking up.

"Oh." Charlie was quiet for a moment. "They—uh—look nice." He clears his throat and goes back to resting his head in his hand.

Santana's cheeks flush with mild embarrassment. Her glasses made her old and _definitely_ not as sexy as she had once felt. "You don't have to lie. They're awful." She mutters still not meeting his eye.

"They don't," Charlie promises moving his hand across the island so his finger is touching one of hers. "You have never once worn anything that was _awful_."

Santana flicked her eyes at him for a moment before looking back down at the documents in front of her. "That's a lie, remember when your mother went through her _knitting_ phase and knitted me a sweater?"

"Okay, so apart from the few occasions that my mother has tried to knit you something to wear, you have never worn anything awful." Charlie corrects himself.

Santana smirks and rolls her eyes. There are _definitely_ some outfits from high school that make her cringe when Bela decided to root around in her old photos. But if Charlie wasn't going to mention it than neither would she. "So your new agent got you all of these endorsements?"

"Yeah." Charlie's quiet for a moment. "She says she's trying to get me on cover of People's sexiest man alive."

"Not with that beard and haircut," Santana responds flipping through some more documents and taking something and immediately moving it to the next.

"I know it's hard to believe but women find me attractive like this."

"Yes, I'm sure your legion of fans find the hipster hobo look to be attractive, but I am getting tired of forcing your son to get a haircut. It's bad enough that he strips down to his underwear the moment he gets home. I'm not going to have him going around with long hair." Charlie scowled at the remark and she stopped putting the documents down. "If you're only doing this to—"

"I'm doing this because you were very good at this before. I'm doing this because quite frankly I'm tired of you barging into my apartment uninvited and yelling at me. I admit that I should have given you the heads up about the song. I didn't though and I'm sorry, consider this my peace offering."

Santana feels her defensive fury deflate a little. She doesn't _want_ it to be like this, where she has an issue with every little thing he says. "Oh. Fine." She settles on, ignoring the awkwardness and turning back to the documents on the table. "Your new agent is earning his keep."

"Once again, Sue is a woman. A crazy bat-shit woman, but a woman who is earning her keep, even if whenever we talk I have to buy her an expensive meal," Charlie mutters. Santana raises a brow at him and he shrugs. "I think, she thinks that it's my job to convince her to keep me on as a client. She's really good."

Santana nodded, she could see that. Charlie would be one of the highest paid sports stars depending on how many endorsement he took. "You know, I'd say that you were rather shrewd in waiting till we were divorced before getting paid."

Charlie frowned, "I—"

"Yes, I'm aware you fired your father. So you know, he's trying to rejoin the gravy train by trying to seduce your mother."

"The money that I give my mom isn't nearly enough to support my father's lifestyle and even if it was, mom doesn't have access to that money, it's set up in a trust of sorts." Charlie responded. His mother was an alcoholic, both his parents were even if Russell had his drinking under far more control then Judy did. She was _good_ when Russell wasn't in her life but when they were together it was a bad combination.

Santana glanced at him, she had been telling Charlie for years that they could do better than Russell. That he was just the albatross around Charlie's neck dragging him down, but for nearly a decade Charlie hadn't listened to her. He wasn't very good at his job, he didn't know how to market his son effectively and from what she heard he was a dick to work with. Yet here he was. "So what did dear old daddy do to get himself cut off?"

Charlie shrugged, "He sold the video to TMZ," his words are enough to finally get Santana to tear her eyes away from the papers in front of her. "I found out it was him, after he lied to me and said it wasn't after he promised me that we'd find the asshole who did it. After I fired everyone who had access to the tape including my lawyers. I found out that he sold the video of me to TMZ for enough money to buy himself some fancy sports car. So I fired him. He was angry. Called me a fag, you know typical _Russell_ behavior. You were right," Charlie shrugs. "About him, about everything."

Santana frowns. Of course she was right, she was _always_ right. But it was no small thing for Charlie to admit that, especially about Russell.

"Go ahead and say it."

"Say what?"

"I told you so." Charlie rolls his eyes. He definitely deserved it. He hated himself for being such an idiot. His father wasn't ever going to change and choosing _him_ over Santana was the worst choice he had ever made. "Come on, it's not like you to pull punches."

Santana sighed, tapping her finger on the granite countertops. Max, worshipped his father in a way that made Charlie a bit uncomfortable, and was probably unhealthy. As far as her son was concerned Charlie was the best thing ever and could do no wrong. If Charlie had loved his father even a fraction of how much Max loved him—then the crushing disappointment that he felt was probably going to make him more cynical than he needed to be. "Am I glad that you finally realized you can do better than him? Absolutely. But I'm sorry that your father isn't the man you want him to be."

"I'm sorry _I_ wasn't the man you wanted me to be." Charlie retorts honestly. He's spent the last who knows how long saying he was sorry, but it's the first time he admits to more than just fucking up. He let Santana down even if it was something that happened years ago. She had always been on his side and _he_ was the only one ultimately responsible.

Santana reaches out and touches his hand running her finger along his. She doesn't say anything as she continues to flip through the documents. There's a little voice in her head, that is reminding her that she was a giant hypocrite. She wasn't the person that Charlie thought he had married either, the whole basis of their marriage had been a lie. She pauses for a moment when she feels Charlie hold her hand, his hand engulfing hers, and a lump forms in her throat. He was such a giant _dork_ , and she _needed_ to move on, but she missed him. "Charlie—"

The door to the house slams open with a loud bang and immediately they separate, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Why is dad's car in the—" Max stopped when he entered the kitchen a huge grin crossing his face as his dad waved at him. " _Dad_!"

Charlie forced a smile onto his face, he was glad to see his son, even as Max practically knocked him off the stool in a hug tackle. "Hey there piranha."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Hello to you too Max, what have I said about slamming the door open? Do you have any idea how much that door costs?"

"Uh—"

"A lot," Charlie whispers to him.

"A lot," Max repeats pleased grinning at his father before letting go and moving to go give his mom a hug.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Where's your brother and sister?"

"Mommy!" CJ yelled stumbling into the kitchen as he tore away from Tina. He stops nearly falling over when he sees Charlie sitting there. " _No!_ "

Charlie turns to his son eagerly, "Is that your version of daddy?"

"No!" CJ repeats laughing before continuing to head to Santana holding his hands up for her to pick him up. " _Up_!"

"Just like your mother." Charlie mutters but his eyes are dancing with mirth.

Santana groans as she picks him up, wondering why she was the one doing it and not Charlie, CJ was getting heavy. She flicks her eyes to Tina who looks surprised that Charlie is here. "Hey Tina, how were they?" Santana asked closing the folder.

"Good, but—"

"Dad?" Bela asked her eyes widening as she rounded the corner. "What are you doing here?" She hisses the last part.

Santana glares at Tina when she notices the twelve year old sociopath following her daughter. "Bree."

"They have a project." Tina explains apologetically. She's already been subjected to driving around Bela's bitchy friend and if she could have prevented this, she would have.

Bree ignores Santana and grins widely at Charlie and waves. "Hi Mr. Fabray, I'm Bela's best friend Bree."

Charlie can practically feel Santana's irritation radiating off her in thick waves. "Nice to meet you." He sticks out his hand politely for her to shake.

Bela groans and covers her face in embarrassment. Was he _trying_ to be some freaky weird version of himself? Because it was working.

Bree ignores the outstretched hand and squeals before wrapping her arms around Charlie's waist and hugs him tightly. "Can I take a picture with you?"

Charlie tenses up immediately and looks at his ex-wife for help but Santana seems to be content in leaving him on his own with this one. "Uh, sure—"

"Come on Bela, why don't you get in the picture?" Santana encourages, smirking as Bree clenches her jaw ever so subtly. She's not about to cater to this pea-brained schemer, but she's also not going to let Bree take too much advantage of Bela in order to bolster her own popularity.

Bela grumbles and moves towards her father, she hadn't taken a picture with him in forever and he immediately moves to pull her into a hug. "Don't be weird dad."

Santana snorts as Charlie pouts at this for a moment and instead puts his arm around Bela's shoulder as Bree leans into him taking the stupid selfie. "Well now that we've gotten that over with—"

"Are you staying for dinner Mr. Fabray? Bela and I could really use your help with our project."

Santana gritted her teeth and was about to answer when Max perked up at the idea of Charlie staying longer than he needed to. "Yeah dad, can you stay for dinner?" Max asked, not noticing Bree smirk.

"I don't know—" Charlie glances at Santana and offers her a side wink that she's sure none of the kids saw.

"I'm sure Santana will make whatever you want. If she remembers, that is." Bree advises.

"Yeah mom, _please?_ "

"If you _really_ want me to stay then I guess your mom will have to make kale salads with half an ounce of chicken for each of us instead of the enchiladas that she was getting ready for dinner. Maybe we can even have a wheatgrass smoothie for dessert."

The smile on Max's face freezes and then slowly turns into a frown. He _liked_ his mom's enchiladas. He also really liked his dad and that food sounded gross. "Is it good?"

"Nope. I have to eat healthy for work and something about anti-oxidants and all sorts of big words that I don't understand. But you and me bud we're a team so if I have to suffer then you—"

"Never mind." Max huffs. "But we can eat whatever this weekend, right? Because it's your cheat day?"

"Yes, it's my cheat day on Saturday," Charlie agrees before pausing. "Are you kicking me out?"

Max kicks his feet guiltily for a moment before nodding, "Yes. But you still love me right?"

"Of course I do, and don't worry about it Max, I would have done the same thing in your shoes." Charlie said patting Max on the head. He was truly his son, and he loved him for it all the more. Food was important and eating good food that you enjoyed was even _more_ important, but he no longer had that luxury. He turns to Santana and smiles at her. "Anyway, I'll call you later?"

Santana nods, he had handled that _deftly_ judging from the scowl on Bree's face. Bree was creepy and Bela really did need new friends. "Yeah, I'll call you when we have a minute and then we can discuss this."

Charlie gets up from the stool and holds out a fist for Max who bumps it the smile back on his face. "See you this weekend Max. You too CJ," Charlie said reaching for his youngest son who simply buried his face in Santana's shoulder. Charlie rolls his eyes and pats his back gently before looking at Bella, who really does look mortified by his presence. He extends a fist towards her and she bumps it, looking embarrassed. "It was nice meeting you Bree, good luck on that project of yours. See you later Tina," Charlie adds giving her a salute before heading out.

Santana shakes her head and places CJ on the ground, "Max can you put on Little Einstein for him? I need to continue getting dinner ready." She didn't know if her relationship with her ex was finally reaching that point where they could be friends. She wasn't truly sure if she even _wanted_ to be friends with Charlie.


	22. Chapter 22

Santana checked her makeup in the mirror of her car before stepping out into the parking garage for Charlie's upscale apartment. She wasn't sure why she was even here, Tina was more than used to picking up the kids at the end of Charlie's weekends, but she wanted to show him that she was making an effort.

She makes her way to the elevator, shaking her head. She's just here to help him finalize his endorsement deals. That's _all_. It's important for them to be on the same page she reasons to herself as she punches the button to reach his penthouse floor.

She pulls out her key and then stuffs it back in her purse, thinking better of it and knocks before she can talk herself out of it. It takes a moment before Bela opens the door and launches herself at her mother, hugging her tightly. "Oh thank god, you're here to save me right?"

Santana blinks twice at her daughter surprised by the public display of affection. She pats Bela's back gently, "You really need to stop with the—" Santana pauses when she notices something dart across the floor. It looked suspiciously like CJ, clad only in a diaper and covered in what appeared to be blue, black and red paint, holding what appeared to be a nerf gun.

"All weekend mom, they've been at it all weekend," Bela sniffed clinging to her mother.

"GOT YOU!" Max yells pulling out from in front of the couch and letting loose his own nerf gun, realizing too late that he had targeted both his sister and _mother_. "Mommy?" He squeaks out after the orange nerf bullets bounce off his mom's arm and purse falling to the ground.

Santana stared at her son who was also just in his underwear covered in blue and red paint. He had even drawn a crude M on his chest as best as he could in paint. Santana's brow twitched—there was _paint_ in his hair. There's a giggling sound as CJ reappears the gun in his hand as he begins to shoot the gun wildly hitting everything around her. "CJ, _stop_!" She commands only to have CJ continue pulling on the trigger.

"CJ, _no_! Retreat! Retreat!" Max calls out rushing over to his brother and pulling on his arm to pull him back. His mom looked pissed.

CJ nods and tumbles along moving with Max when he stops as Charlie pops out from behind a door. He was just wearing a pair of shorts and had paint on him that looked like his interpretation of war paint. "You guys wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!" Charlie grins pulling the trigger of his blaster.

" _Hit the deck!_ " Max yells as CJ falls on his butt and he dives for cover reaching to pull his brother to safety as his mom gets bombarded with the small green balls, Bela having the good sense to duck out of the apartment to take cover.

Charlie stops when he finally notices Santana who has been pelted with the tiny green balls and immediately chucks the gun behind him and flashes his ex-wife what he hopes was an innocent smile. "Hey San." She shoots him a withering glare and he knows that he's in _deep_ shit.

Santana exhales and glances at her daughter for a moment who looks rather frazzled, she had just spent a weekend with three boys who had probably tormented her relentlessly. She walks into the apartment her high-heels clicking on the wood floors as she approached her sons who were hiding behind Charlie's oversized couch. "Max. CJ. Hand over the guns."

Max swallowed as he stared at his mother before handing over the gun nudging CJ who looked like he was about to protest. After making a face CJ handed his gun over to his mom.

Santana points to the corner and Max's shoulders droop. "But we're at _Dad's_." His dad didn't even have a specific time out spot.

Charlie nods, "Do as your mother says Max," he said quickly, flashing a smile at his ex-wife. He hadn't expected anyone to come pick up the kids until much later. It was a surprise to see Santana instead of Tina.

" _But—"_

"Don't worry your father will be joining you as well," Santana interrupts turning to look at Charlie.

"Wait— _what_?" Charlie asks he was an adult and he certainly wasn't going to stand facing the wall like some child.

"You _terrorized_ our daughter," Santana informed him bluntly pointing at Bela who was trying her hardest not to grin at the turn of events. "And I've told them a million times not to play with that in the house. Yet here you are leading the charge, so all three of you are going to face that wall and _think_ about your actions and the impact your actions have on those around you for the next ten minutes."

Charlie blinked and turned to look at Bela, she had participated _fully_ in their little nerf gun battle. "But—" Bela flashes him the smuggest grin on the planet as Santana marches up to him and pokes him in the chest.

"Should I make it twenty?" Santana questions.

" _Dad_." Max said tugging on his father's hand. "She means it."

Charlie felt a chuckle at Max's seriousness but a glance at Santana told him not to push his luck. Obediently he sat down beside his two sons. He smiles when CJ decides to make himself comfortable on his lap.

Santana doesn't have to glance over to see if she was obeyed, but doesn't dare look toward Charlie and the boys. She surveys the apartment and bites her lip, "Why don't you sit down and relax Bela. It sounds like you had a rough weekend and we girls need to stick together."

"You have no _idea_." Bela gasped dramatically, falling back down to the sofa with relief that she wasn't going to have to pick up all the little nerf darts.

"Who the hell thought it was a good idea to get _paint_?" Santana shakes her head in disbelief. Sure the paint covering the boys was mostly dry but there were some red footprints that trekked throughout Charlie's apartment. His cleaning lady would have a field day.

"It was Max's idea."

"No it wasn't." Max piped up from timeout defiantly.

Bela rolls her eyes. "Yes it _was_."

"But it was _your_ idea to have a nerf fight." Max retorts.

"I was just trying to do my homework." Bela holds up her hands defensively.

Santana rolled her eyes as Charlie pressed his hand over Max's mouth, "Shush, you're going to get us into more trouble."

Those were her boys. She didn't doubt for a moment that Bela had _something_ to do with this but she hadn't caught her with a nerf gun. "So we're clear Charlie, you're going to make sure that both of them are _paint_ free before they get into my car."

"That was the plan." Charlie informed her wondering if he could get away with sticking them into a bath together. He ruffles CJ's hair as his youngest son's eyes get heavy.

Santana nods and takes a quick peek at the stacked pizza boxes on the counter and the pile of dishes, he had absolutely no system when it came to dealing with the kids and keeping his place from looking like a tornado had hit. "Alright, go get them cleaned up, I only came early so we could talk about your endorsements. So get them clean, put on a shirt and settle them down and we'll talk."

Charlie and the boys race to the bathroom, Max and Charlie both delighted to be out of timeout with CJ toddling behind them. Santana watches them go with a small smile on her lips glad that Bela is too distracted by blaming the boys to call her on it.

~O~

Charlie cracked his neck and looked up from the papers that he and Santana had been reviewing. Santana had come with piles of research along with her suggestions for which endorsements would be things that might not directly conflict with his other deals but have a roundabout impact. She also had insights that he couldn't get from anywhere else, things like which companies were things their kids already liked or companies with shady morals that he would want to stay away from. They had talked for _hours_ and the kids had quickly grown bored with the excitement of having both of them in the same room and were absorbed in some movie in the other room. "Oh, it's getting late."

Santana blinks and looks over at the clock for confirmation. It's after ten and she definitely didn't expect to be here this long. "Guess I totally blew bedtime."

"The kids have fun. And it's not like they have to go to school tomorrow. Isn't it a holiday?"

"For them, it's a professional development day or whatever," Santana shakes her head.

Charlie nods even though he has no idea what that is, "Right."

Santana chuckles. "Which means you're right. No school. I guess they can stay the night if that's okay."

"Of _course_ it's okay." Charlie grins and then furrows his brow as another realization strikes him. "But you're not going to drive back yourself tonight are you?"

"It's ten thirty. I think I can handle driving an hour home." Santana placates, rolling her eyes. Sure she actually hates driving that far at night alone but she's not some old lady.

"But you're just going to have to drive _back_ here tomorrow in order to pick them up." He doesn't mention that she could _also_ send Tina tomorrow. "Look you can stay the night and take my bed it's super comfortable—"

Santana narrowed her eyes Charlie had never been subtle when it came to wanting sex, "I have a boyfriend and you're seeing Dani."

"One, I'm not seeing Dani. Two, I wasn't planning on sharing the same bed with you. My couch is super comfortable, I'll just grab some blankets and camp out on the couch. Maybe the kids and I can make a fort." Charlie muses.

Santana rolls her eyes. " _Whatever_ you're doing with Dani is your business. You don't have to lie."

Charlie puffs out his cheeks, he doesn't know how many times he can say it before Santana believes him. He would just tell her bluntly that Dani was a lesbian _if_ he hadn't promised that he wouldn't tell anyone. Quinn was his sister and he knew how important keeping that secret was to her. He wasn't going to be _that_ asshole. At this point he just needed to get Dani in a room with Santana. Santana would probably figure it out quickly. "You can borrow something from my closet if you want, the kids have plenty of clothes here so they'll be fine."

Santana rolls her eyes but takes the opportunity to rummage through Charlie's closet. "Fine. No funny business."

"What funny business are you expecting? Do you think I'm going to sneak cuddle you?"

Santana shook her head, "No, now that I think about it we both know that your seduction skills are also non-existent so I'm probably safe for tonight." She gets up and stretches feeling the delicious pop and ignoring Charlie's mild pout. "That bed of yours had better be comfortable. Oh and by the way you're in charge of feeding the kids tomorrow."

"Wait—how's that fair?" Charlie asks to Santana's retreating form.

Santana just flashes him a smile and watches his brain begin to work, it was enough for now as she enters his room. She had sort of thought that it would be messy, but it's surprising neat. Sure he hadn't made the bed and his gym bag was in the middle of the floor but she had expected a serious amount of clothes and dirty underwear. But there wasn't much, in fact the room was rather empty. The only pictures were of the two of them on the nightstand. She pauses and blinks when the picture fades away and photos of the kids appear. It was a digital picture frame that seemed to change all the time. A small smile crosses her features before she moves to his closet, grabbing a pair of his shorts and one of his rattier practice jerseys.

She inhales deeply, it smells like him even though it was freshly laundered it _smelt_ like him. She hadn't kept any of his clothes or anything that they had shared together after the divorce, she had gotten rid of most of it. The house in LA was still on the market but she was going to steal the jersey. It was ratty anyway and he probably wouldn't notice.

Shimmying out of her clothes, she quickly slips his clothes on, snorting at how big it was on her body, she glances at his closet wondering what else she could borrow from him when there is a knock on the door. Charlie had his hand over his eyes as he waited for permission to enter the bedroom. She can't help but roll her eyes at his dorkiness. "I'm decent."

"I just came to grab some blankets for the couch. I managed to put CJ in his bed and I got Bela to go to her room. The moment I tried to put Max to bed he insisted on camping out with me in the living room. So we'll be doing that tonight. There's a pack of toothbrushes in the bathroom if you want to use one," Charlie offers as he heads to his closet and grabs some sheets and a few blankets trying his best to not stare at Santana. He had always found her sexy when she was wearing his clothes and this was no exception. How many times had they ended up having sex with Santana dressed in something like that?

"Yeah of course," Santana says easily moving aside so Charlie could get what he needed, she follows him into his walk-in and grabs a few extra blankets from one of the middle shelves, feeling her ex-husband press against her as he reaches for the pillows that were out of reach. She swallows and waits till he takes a step back before turning around to hand him the pillows. "Here—" she begins her breath hitching as Charlie leans forward to kiss her again, dropping the blankets in his arms as he pulls her body closer to his. And for one moment it just feels _right_. Too right, and wrong and confusing as she puts a hand on his chest and shoves him back. She immediately drags her hand along her lips and scowls at him, even if she doesn't feel angry. "I thought we agreed no funny business. I have a boyfriend and you have a _whatever_ it is."

"Sorry, _sorry_ ," Charlie mumbles bending over to pick up the blankets and the pillows his cheeks burning at the rejection.

Santana watches him quietly, it's all she needs to say to him as he scampers to the living room to go 'camping' with his son. She swallows trying to get her heart rate down, this was why distance was good for them. It wasn't fair to either of them to make things confusing.


	23. Chapter 23

**I really want to do a director's commentary but that ruins the experience for people anyway enjoy, review. Blah Blah, I have a where the entire story and several others are completed as well as getting to see what I'm working on next.**

* * *

She was a dead woman. Her mom was going kill her.

"Bela, this is _so cool_." Bree sighed, Charlie's old jersey draped over her. It was the one that he had always talked about getting framed as it had been signed by all his old teammates.

"Yeah." Bela agreed nervously. "Bree that's like super rare, can you please put it back down. I need to make sure that everything is as we found it or my parents are going to know and we won't be able to do this again."

"Holy shit! Is this ball really signed by _the_ Michael Jordan? Your dad knows him?" Phil Lipoff asked as he attempted to spin the ball on his fingers.

Bela cringed as they knocked the ball over and it bounced on the hardwood floors, "My dad said he met him when the Charlotte Hornets were in talks with him after he entered the draft."

"Relax." Elaine scoffs from somewhere in the kitchen. "I thought you said you came to your dad's place all the time."

"I do." Bela gulps down the lie and can almost feel her future ending right in front of her. This was a _terrible_ idea and it wasn't going to end well. But _Bobby_ was here and she didn't want him to think she was some dumb little kid. He was two years older than her. "I just don't invite people over and if my dad knew that I was having a party here I'd be grounded for life."

"He'll never know." Bree rolls her eyes and turns to find Elaine. "You can just make your maid clean it up."

"I don't have a—"

"Well you might as well give Tina something to do. It's not like you really need a babysitter." Bree reasons.

"Holy shit! I found the motherlode!" Bobby calls out from where he's opened a cupboard to find several different liquors and various other alcohol just sitting there. "We might not even need all the beer my brother and his friends are bringing."

Bela felt her heart drop, " _Friends_? This is supposed to be a small get together—"

Bree pulled Bela aside as Bobby's phone rang, "Bela. don't be such a baby. This is a _party_ and I told you, only the cool kids are going to be here. And not just losers from our school. _High school_ kids too. We _have_ to make a good impression."

"Bree, I—"

"Bela, these are the kids that are going to decide whether you're a loser or whether you're popular. Right now, you're acting like a loser."

"My dad is going to _kill_ me." Bela grumbles, "So it's probably not going to matter if—" Her concerns are drowned out by Bobby opening the door right as Phil apparently figured out how to turn on her dad's sound system.

~O~

It had been just over two hours and Bela was certain she was going to have a heart attack any minute. How was this supposed to be _fun_? She was too busy running around making sure that people didn't destroy her dad's stuff to even think about what Bobby thought of her.

This had to stop. The music was blaring despite how many times she tried to turn it down and she _knew_ someone would find out about the alcohol that was flowing freely. She wasn't even going to think of the few high school students who were out on the balcony smoking. She _hoped_ it was just cigarettes, but it didn't smell like that. The cops would come and she'd be in jail until she was fifty and then her parents would _murder_ her.

She slips into the bathroom unnoticed and locks the door behind her, wincing at the destruction of her dad's bathroom and grimacing upon seeing a few used condoms thrown around the bathroom. It was _disgusting_ and she knew she needed to call the one number that she _really_ wished she could avoid.

 _'Hey Bela, are you having fun at your sleepover?'_ Santana answers on the second ring.

Bela swallows, she had lied to her mom about where she was going and now she was being forced to tell the truth. "I didn't go to Elaine's house for a sleepover."

Bela can almost see her mom furrowing her brow suspiciously. _'Where are you?'_

"Dad's place, I used my key to get in."

 _'And Tina's with you?'_ Santana pressed.

Bela gulps. "No, after she took me to Elaine's she took the boys home to watch dad's game."

As if the world is deliberately conspiring against her, the music that had been a steady lull in the background is turned up so loudly that the walls might as well be shaking. _'Bela, are you having a party?'_

"It was just supposed to be a couple of kids but then Bree said—"

 _'Oh I have an idea what that little shit probably said. I'll be there in twenty minutes. Stay in the bathroom and don't let anyone in until I get there.'_

Bela swallows and nods feeling the tears well up in her eyes, "Mom? Please hurry," she begs rubbing her face.

Santana is quiet for a moment she can hear the fear in Bela's voice and it reminds her that her daughter hadn't even turned 12 yet. _'Stay in the bathroom, I'll be there as soon as I can._ '

~O~

Sebastian grimaced as he jogged to keep up with Santana despite the fact that she was shorter than he was. He didn't mind that his date had been interrupted but the look on Santana's face was enough to cause him worry. "Santana, I know you're upset but I think your daughter showed the correct judgement. She called you when the party was getting out of hand—"

Santana resisted the urge to stop and yell at him as she slammed her hand on the button of the elevator. He wasn't her father, and the idea that he was attempting to give _her_ parenting advice when he didn't have children was not only unwanted it was downright useless. She was concerned that her daughter was in danger, once she was sure that Bela was okay she would deal with her daughter later. "Sebastian _stop_." She didn't need to hear this right now, she needed to get to her daughter. Calling Charlie had been a bust, he was working and didn't have his phone on him at that moment, not to mention that he was in fucking Canada. She wasn't even sure his phone worked up there.

Sebastian was quiet for a moment before deciding to push his luck, he had done the party thing when he was teenager and from what Maribel and Carlos had told him so had Santana, teenagers were going to be teenagers. He had never showed the right judgement in calling his parents when shit got out of hands. "I'm just saying—"

"And _I'm_ _saying_ to not say anything at all." Santana snaps at him as the elevator doors open and she steps inside. If her daughter was okay, she was going to pull her away from that school and take a better interest in her daughter's life. She had known that Bree was a sociopath and against her better judgement she had let Bela be friends with her. A party was probably the best of a bad situation, it could have been much worse. She read the news and she wasn't going to let her daughter be the victim of bullying or some silly attack.

There was a ding as the elevator doors slid open on Charlie's floor and Santana's heart dropped at the sight of two police officer's pounding on the door. She plasters on her best fake smile and extends her hand. "Officers. I have a key. I'm Santana Lopez-Fabray and this is Charlie's apartment."

"We received a noise complaint." One of the officers explains. He's well aware of whose apartment this is and most guys in the department had fought over the chance to ride out here.

"My daughter called and told me that things got out of hand. I may need your help in making sure things are okay." Santana explains simply keeping her tone pleasant. Charlie was going to be signing some autographs until his hand cramped up and he would need to get down to the station to have his picture taken with some of the cops. "May I?" Santana asks holding up the key and the officers step back allowing her to unlock the door.

She strides in and turns off the music, every eye turning toward her in betrayal that turns into horror. "Party's over. Line up by the door and empty out your pockets so the nice officers can call your parents." She declares with finality. She wasn't going to let these little shits steal from Charlie. "This is your one chance to return anything that you took, or my husband will have the police come and arrest you and I assure you will suffer the consequences." Her nostrils flared as she got the whiff of weed and turned to the officers. "I want you to arrest anyone who smells like weed. The league can ban Charlie for the rest of the season if they hear about this."

"Of course." The cops nod firmly. It's the first time in years that the Cavs are looking to finally take it all the way and it's not like Charlie was involved in this at all.

Sebastian watches awkwardly by the door as Santana breaks up the party. He's not sure if he's supposed to be supportive or stern and so he's just steering clear of Santana who looks like she's practically on a warpath. Once she's sure that the cops have this handled, and are indeed collecting anything that might be Charlie's she storms around the apartment surveying the damage.

Condoms, vomit, clothes, broken glass and shitty food littered his apartment, she didn't even want to check in on CJ and Max's room, she wasn't interested in seeing some pimply faced teenager having sex. She was definitely going to make sure that everything was replaced in those rooms. The last thing she needed was either of her son's catching some disgusting venereal disease from contact. She exhales and immediately heads to Charlie's room so she can rescue her daughter from her father's bathroom. She opens the door and frowns deeply at the sight of two teenagers rolling around in Charlie's comfortable bed. "Get the _hell_ out."

The two kids jump apart from each other and Bree scowls. She personally thought that Bela's mom was a bitch. "What are _you_ doing here? Bela said you and your _ex_ -husband don't talk to each other, and this is _his_ apartment."

Santana studied Bree for a moment, she was definitely a sociopath. It was a shame that the police were just in the other room. She flicks her eyes to the boy who is struggling to pull his pants up, some blond dipshit from the looks of it. "My ex-husband is many things, but the one thing I can't fault him on his is _fierce_ overprotective streak of his children especially Bela. So you have five seconds to grab your _cheap_ , clothes and your discount shoes and those godawful earrings that you're wearing and get the _hell_ off his bed, and go line up with the other _criminals_." Santana arched a brow at Bree who glared at her. This was stupid Bree was twelve years old, she didn't need to lay one of her verbal smack downs on her.

"Maybe we should just—"

"Shut- _up_ Bobby," Bree snaps at him. Taking her anger out on him. She wasn't going to be _embarrassed_ like that by some old washed-up reality star. "I'm going to make sure everyone knows what a _loser_ Bela is at school."

Santana didn't say anything she just waited until they were done dressing before stepping out of the way. She would deal with _that_ later, but after they left she marches over to the bathroom and immediately knocks on the door to Charlie's bathroom. "Isabela, it's me. Open up."

It only takes a second before the door is open and Bela has her arms wrapped around her mother tightly, tears streaming down her face. She was so _stupid_ and dumb and she couldn't believe that she had listened to Bree. She had made the mistake of thinking Bree was her friend and that Bobby liked her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"I know." Santana soothes. She's pissed at her daughter and ready to punish her to hell and back, but at least her daughter had the good sense to call before these kids could do something really dangerous.

"I didn't even want to do this and it was just supposed to be a few people cause Bree said that Bobby really liked me and I thought—"

Santana winced and slowly rubbed her daughter's back, as she hiccuped violently, "Being a teenager is _difficult_ you're always going to feel that pressure to fit in, that's why you need really good and solid friends. I had your Aunt Brittany and most of the time your Aunt Quinn when we weren't squabbling over who was number one. Bela your father is a celebrity and there are going to be people who want to take advantage of that and you need to be careful about that sort of thing."

Bela sobs and holds onto her mom even tighter. She's not sure how this all got so far out of control. But she's sure that she's definitely in trouble.

~O~

Santana paces in front of the door waiting for Charlie to show up. Max was seated beside CJ who was in a stroller asleep, while Bela was standing in the corner trying to remain unnoticed. She didn't really have a choice but to call Charlie and tell him that Bela had decided to start her life of crime early, but she was pretty sure Charlie didn't understand exactly how bad it was. Sure the cleaners had been by and sanitized everything they could, but his place was still ruined. She had already put in for new furniture but that wouldn't be arriving until Wednesday, which was why she was here to help him out for the next few days.

"Why—why can't Dad just stay with us? Till his apartment gets fixed cause _someone_ —" he glares at Bela. "Ruined it."

Bela rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything. The more she can avoid her mother's attention, the better. Her mother hadn't punished her yet but she already knew that it was incoming until her dad came home and had a say.

Santana frowned, it had been what she was planning but it was completely up to Charlie. He hadn't said much on the phone, just that he'd be back first thing on Sunday morning. It was barely enough time to get a cleaning crew inside his apartment. Her entire weekend had been ruined as she made sure that they cleaned his apartment to the best of their capabilities. She had spent a mini fortune getting rid of his furniture, especially the kids furniture and sanitizing everything that she could. Someone had thrown up in one of his pots, and there had been butts littering his balcony. Someone had even found a bag of weed between the couch cushions. "We'll see what he says, but don't worry it won't take long to get the place back in order. I promise."

The elevator dings and Max sits up immediately as his dad walks off the elevator carrying a duffel bag. "Dad's here."

Bela gulps and Max sprints to Charlie's side and wraps his arms around Charlie's legs. "Bela messed up." He murmurs.

Charlie snorts. "Yes she did." He was irritated that after a long game, which they had lost, he only had a frantic message from Santana that she was taking care of it but that Bela had destroyed his apartment and invited _boys_ over. Now not only did he have to replace his stuff, he had to worry about his daughter _dating_. Plus he'd have to talk to Santana about a _suitable_ punishment for Bela. It was just a gigantic headache that he didn't want to deal with. "Let's see the damage shall we?" Charlie said flashing a smile at Max and running a hand through his hair.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Santana winced.

"It can't be _that_ bad, certainly no worse than our prom after-party," Charlie responds smiling at Santana. That had certainly been a night to remember. She had been put on the waiting list to Syracuse and he had been terrified that he would need to leave her behind.

Santana studied him for a moment, her lips twitching upward for a second before she straightened her face. "I plan on replacing all your furniture of course, especially the kids. Some of the high school students were doing _things_ on their beds," Santana nods towards Max and CJ.

Charlie flicked his eyes to Bela for a moment but she immediately stares at the ground, he doesn't say anything instead turning to look at Santana. "Okay, you can redo my apartment just none of that you know fancy furniture that you like so much. If you can just basically get the same things and put it back in my apartment that would be great."

Santana stared at him before sniffing in indignation, he had never appreciated her interior design talents. "Yeah sure, go with the broke chic look, I'm sure it'll go over real well with the ladies."

"What ladies?" Max asks crinkling his nose.

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Well, once upon a time it worked on you," Charlie challenges as he opens the door. "Be careful Max and keep your shoes on okay? I don't know if they got all the glass and stuff." Charlie sighs and opens up his door somewhat surprised that it isn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. He had envisioned something way worse, and perhaps it had been worse before the cleaners had cleaned everything up. "It's not _that_ bad." Charlie informs Santana tossing his bag onto the island.

"Tell that to the mental image of twelve year olds bumping uglies in your bed. You're going to want to burn your sheets. And probably the mattress too."

He turns to Bela with a brow raised. "You were—"

"No, wasn't me," Bela mutters under her breath.

"Well, I guess there's that." He runs his hands through his hair. "Is anything missing?"

Santana shakes her head. "I had each of the kids empty their pockets before they left. Someone tried to steal one of your signed jersey's but I think he was on drugs. You should check though. Fill out a police report. I don't think they managed to get your championship ring."

"Of course not, stuff like that is hidden in a safe," He had figured that Max might attempt to borrow it one day to show it off, he had never thought it would be Bela. "Alright let me just do a spot check to see if the important things are still here alright?"

Santana nods and watches as Charlie heads off to his room, before looking at Bela. "Even if your father insists that we cut you a break, don't think you're going to get out of this scot free."

Bela shrank back and swallowed as Max stuck out his tongue at her. "You're in trouble!"

Santana gives Max a quick smack upside his head. "Keep going like that and you'll be in trouble too," she informs him.

The look on Charlie's face when it comes back confirms that Bela is in deep shit. He blows past them and starts opening drawers furiously. "Where is it?"

"Where's what?" Santana asked, trying to be helpful. Maybe she could help him track down whatever they would need to find.

"My wedding ring. It's normally in the drawer beside my bed." He turns to Bela, his eyes flashing angrily. "Which of your little shitwad friends were in my bedroom?"

"Charlie—" Santana begins she's usually the disciplinarian in the family and judging how Max had scrambled back and was watching everything with wide eyes, this might devolve into a disaster. "The last time you swore—"

" _Where is it_?" Charlie demands again angrily. He slams the drawer closed and focuses his attention on his daughter taking a step towards her.

It's enough to get Santana to intervene, when she sees a flash of fear on Bela's face and she takes a step back. Bela had never seen Charlie angry, none of the kids had and she immediately steps between him and his daughter. She didn't think that Charlie was going to hit her, but he was freakishly tall and muscular, it was intimidating even if right now in the moment Charlie had no idea that he was doing it. Even Max looked nervous about all of this and she needed to put a stop to it before he said or did something he regretted. She places her hand on his chest firmly shoving him back. " _Charles._ " He had always preferred Charlie, it just suited him and calling him Charles irritated him. It had always sounded pretentious in a way that never fit _him_.

Charlie's hazel eyes flew to Santana, his anger bubbling over. "I know that our marriage is something you wish you could forget but it _meant_ something to me. Even if I screwed up it _meant_ something to me."

Santana narrowed her eyes slightly, he was angry and hurt. "Take a breath. You're scaring the kids. Do you hear me Charlie, you're scaring them. So take a breath."

Charlie flicks his eyes to Max who had a look of fear on his face and he immediately pulls back, shrinking back down. "Sorry," he mutters under his breath. He takes his breath, moving to lean back. He couldn't even look at Bela right now without getting angry.

Max takes a shaky breath and hugs his dad tightly, "We'll find it, I promise."

Charlie runs his hand through Max's hair, "Yeah." He can't believe it. The last tangible tie he had to Santana other than his children is _gone_ and there's no way for him to ever replace it.

Bela bursts into tears. Maybe it's the stress of her impending punishment, or the teenaged angst over realizing her best friend used her to get the boy that Bela liked, or maybe it's that she's never seen her dad so angry and he can't even make this better.

Santana wraps her arms around her daughter and Charlie scowls. "I don't know why _you're_ crying. It's _my stuff_."

" _Charlie_. Deep breaths." Santana warns him, looking at him pointedly. He's never been this caustic toward the kids and she needs him to calm down so that they can be the parents. "And she's still going to be punished, but—"

"Punished? Bela?" Charlie scoffs. "Until she cries to get her way."

"Well that's certainly not my fault." Santana points out. Bela's had Charlie wrapped around her finger since the day she was born and this is the first she's ever heard Charlie complain about it. "But let's focus on what she did wrong instead of yelling at her, she did call me when things got out of hand." Santana points out it's a lame argument and it's the one that Sebastian used but Bela was safe.

"Don't be mad at Bela." Max agrees. "She's sorry and she'll help you look."

Charlie sighs. "Okay, fine."

Bela's overwhelmed tears turn angry. There it is again, the favoritism Charlie shows Max because Max is perfect and stupid and _his_. "No. You hate me. Go on, say it."

"Bela, I don't hate you—"

"Of course you do! That's why you want to spend all your time with Max and CJ because they're _yours_."

Santana's heart stops at the words, " _Bela—_ " She begins turning on her daughter immediately she needed to calm this situation down, it was already dangerously on the edge.

"What are you talking about—and why you turning this on me? I'm _upset_ with you. You and your little friends destroyed my apartment, I'm going to have to live in a hotel for a few days. I do not love Max or CJ more than I love you. And what's this _yours_ business?"

"I'm _not yours_ , and you know it," Bela spits before Santana can tackle her to the ground. "I'm not yours and you love them more than me and I know that's why you and mom got divorced."

Charlie stares at Santana helplessly for a moment before swallowing. This had his father's hands written all over it. "Bela, my father's not a good man that's why he's never invited to family functions because _no_ one likes him. If he put this in your head, then you need to drop it because my dad doesn't like your mother."

Bela scoffs and turns to Santana, he didn't even realize he treated her differently. That he favored his two _sons_ over her. "Tell him."

Charlie turned to Santana, "Tell me _what_?"

Santana isn't going to back down but she also isn't going to do this in front of their children. "Bela, take Max and CJ for a walk."

" _Mom_ —"

"Do it _now_." She barked furiously. This was a secret she was planning on taking to her grave because it didn't _matter_. Charlie loved Bela, and Bela loved Charlie more than anyone. Blood wasn't what made a family.

"Stay on this floor." Charlie warns but with a tone that declares there is no room to argue.

Bela rolls her eyes. Of _course_ her parents were going to keep secrets even now. She hated them for it. She grabs CJ's stroller and pushes it roughly, jostling her younger brother awake and he begins to cry. But she ignores it as Max follows her out of the apartment his brow furrowed.

Charlie waits until the door is closed before turning his attention to his ex-wife and crossing his arms over his chest. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like this news. "What the fuck is she talking about?"

Santana rolls her eyes, "Bela overheard a _private_ conversation that she took out of context and decided it was gospel truth."

Charlie eye's narrowed, he wasn't an idiot. Yeah he was pretty easy going and liked to ignore things that were right in front of him but that didn't just come out of anywhere. If Santana was having a private conversation, then chances are there was some truth to Bela's claims. He had blamed most of Bela's problems on the divorce. But if she knew something that he didn't know then it was unconscionable that Santana had kept it from him. "So she's my daughter? It's a yes or no question Santana. Is she my daughter?"

She didn't expect him to ask straight out. "Does it matter?"

"Are you kidding me?" Charlie's jaw dropped incredulously. That was as good of an admission as he expected to get but it made his entire heart stop.

Santana swallowed, "Would it change anything if she was yours or not? Would you stop loving her? Would she suddenly—"

"Fuck. My dad was right." Charlie said stumbling back hurt etched on his face. "You only married me because I was going places. Are Max and CJ mine as well? Or were you—"

"I _never cheated_ on you." Santana hisses immediately. How could he of all people imply that? "It was a possibility that she _wasn't_ yours, we were in university We were in university and we were broken up because of your _stupid_ preparations for March Madness. So _excuse_ me if I wanted to enjoy myself—"

"We were taking a damn break! That's what we were doing. We were taking a fucking break. I wasn't sleeping with anyone then. Hell the _only_ person at that time I had slept with was you. I thought you understood that my entire scholarship depended on how I was playing—our future—"

Santana shook her head she wasn't going to let him paint the picture like she was some gold-digger. "I was _nineteen_ and _pregnant_ and I didn't know what the hell I was going to do with my life. I _thought_ you were dating other people too and I didn't find out until years after we were together that you hadn't. I _thought_ you knew she might not be yours and by the time I realized it, she was four. What was I _supposed to do_?"

"Tell me! Tell me, for fucks sake tell me!" Charlie snapped at her. He runs a hand through his hair. He felt so stupid. He had been kicked out of his home, let Santana take _everything_ from him. All of his stuff hoping that she'd forgive him. That she'd take her pound of flesh and then be willing to work things out with him. But he honestly just felt betrayed.

Santana looks away, he's angry at her he has every right to be. "Max and CJ are yours, once we were married I was never with anyone else—but Bela—"

"It's why you didn't want me to test them when we were getting divorced," Charlie clenches his fist. She had known and orchestrated this whole thing.

"Bela didn't ask for any of this, you're her father—"

"Damn right I'm her father," Charlie mutters under his breath. Like hell he was letting some other man come into Bela's life and tell her what to do. He had changed her diapers. He had worn a tutu and a tiara for his daughter. He had helped potty train her, he had read her bedtime stories. He had held her when she was scared and he'd be damned if someone else was going to walk her down the aisle and glare at the man who was stealing away _his_ baby girl.

It's like the crushing weight has been lifted off her body as she looks at him. Brittany had always said that he'd accept Bela no questions asked but it was a little hard to believe it. "That's all she needs to hear Charlie—"

"Hardly. Look, I'm going to inform Bela bluntly that I'm her father and then I'm going to hand down her punishment from hell, after which I'm going to find the nicest hotel to check into—"

"You can stay with us. Max—" Santana interrupts.

Charlie grabs his bag from the island studying his ex-wife. "No, I really can't." Charlie informs her. "You hid this from me, and right now I need my space from you. Oh and by the way, I'm taking Max to the All-Star game in LA for his birthday present. I was going to take Bela as well, but that's off the table unless she can show me that she's making a concerted effort to earn back my trust. Which includes her grades and fixing this mess that she's made. Until I get this place cleaned up, and fixed so it's safe for the kids, I think it's best if you have them for a while." He turns looking at his apartment for a moment. The first order of business was changing the damn locks on his door.

"Charlie—" Santana begins only to have him walk out the door leaving her in his trashed apartment. She lets out a shaky breath, it had _hurt_. She had cut him in a deep way that she wasn't quite sure would ever be repaired and they had just finally started to get along. She wipes her eyes quickly, she needed to show a united front even if they were more fractured than before.


	24. Chapter 24

**When I was a kid I knew a bunch of girls who were having sex at 12 years old, with nineteen year olds as well because it was the cool hip thing to do, I do not think that much has changed as for where they got the alcohol, pretty sure I stated that Charlie had alcohol in his house. He never allowed Bela to be at home by herself and he never gave her permission to throw a party, so them finding it and drinking it and inviting older kids to party, also happened a lot when I was 12.**

* * *

Santana spread the icing on the cupcakes thickly, trying to make sure that she got them on evenly. It was a week before Christmas, and she was personally at her wits end as she tried to get ready for Max's birthday party. It was going to be a busy day and Max was turning _seven_. Her parents would be coming, Judy would be coming to help out with party, which was going to take place at the Quicken Loans arena. Charlie had pulled some strings and gotten floor side seats for all of Max's friends. She was exceptionally glad that

"I think—mmf, these are delicious—that you're being far too hard on yourself." Brittany advised Santana consolingly as she took another cupcake and bit into it.

Santana shakes her head, Brittany didn't understand. "No, I'm not. You didn't see the way he looked at me." Santana admits despite the fact that she didn't want to think about it. It was something that had haunted her since he had stormed out of his apartment. Charlie had never looked at her like that, like she was some dirt beneath her shoe. It reminded her of the years she had spent attempting to befriend Russell before realizing that the attempt was useless. "The funny thing is I know _exactly_ how he feels, like he was betrayed. Like the whole reason we got married was based on a lie. It was a lie and now I know him, he's thinks Russell was right about me. That I am just a gold digger."

"Well, he needed to find out at some point." Brittany offers with a sigh. She had come over to make Santana feel better after one too many comments about how they should 'hang out'. Santana never wanted to hang out and ever since they were teens she had to trick Santana to have lazy movie days. "Charlie will get over it—"

"The only reason he declared, was because I was pregnant and he wanted to support me. He wanted to man-up, and be the father that he needed to be. He wasn't ready to declare for the NBA at the point, his body wasn't finished growing and his rookie year in the NBA was _brutal_ for him. He was paranoid about being cut, about being shipped down to the D-league."

"Why are we under the impression that Charlie wouldn't have done the same thing if he knew Bela wasn't his? Bela is still his daughter, he still loves her just as much as he loves Max and CJ. He's angry and hurt now, but that doesn't mean that things are going to turn out fine Santana." Santana opens her mouth to protest and Brittany moves shaking her head. "What's he going to do? Divorce you? Oh, wait," Brittany pointed out flatly.

Santana narrowed her eyes at Brittany but decided to let it go, she simply didn't get it. "Will you stop eating Max's cupcakes?" She snaps at Brittany who grabs another one. "I spent most of this morning making them."

"Because you couldn't sleep?" Brittany asked glancing at the time, it was only after seven am.

"It's a big day and Max is turning seven. Why couldn't he just go to Chuck E. Cheeses like a regular kid, but _of course_ he needed to go to a basketball game to see his father. At least it'll be easier to manage, I won't have to deal with them running around."

"Well, as fun as watching Charlie show off is, do you think Mike will be playing? Cause he gets all sweaty and I think I'm going home with him tonight. You know after a game is the best time to have—" Brittany trailed off as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She turns in her stool to see an irritated Bela who was rubbing her eyes fully dressed.

"Tina's coming to pick me up to take me to grandma's place," Bela mumbled heading for the fridge as she began to search for something to eat. She loved her grandmother, she truly did but spending time with her grandma's church group, where they did all sorts of community service was _torture_. She usually spent five hours, listening to old people repeat the same stories about the people they knew, and how boring their lives were. And their snacks were _oddly_ healthy.

Santana nods, "What are you going to be doing today?" Truthfully it had been a stroke of brilliance on Charlie's part, five hours of community service without a phone and in the middle of nowhere? She was surprised Bela wasn't tearing her hair out. Though she was doing it without a lot of complaints. Things were still tense between her and Charlie and she wasn't quite sure what she was going to do about it. Bela seemed eager to get in her father's good graces though, so whatever he had said to her had seemingly put a stop to her attitude problems.

"I'm going to be helping out with sorting all the coats and winter jackets that were donated and helping with the food drive. Grandma said we'd be leaving a bit early so we can be back in time for Max's birthday party. I cleared it with dad. I'll be working longer to make up for it."

"If your father's okay with it, then that is fine with me." It's a little odd for her to be deferring to Charlie for their kids' discipline but it's nice that he is finally stepping up. Charlie's always been the fun parent while she was the one that enforced bedtimes and timeouts.

Brittany stole another cupcake while Santana's back was turned. "What did you get Max for his birthday, Bela? I always got your father duck stuff."

Bela smirks, "Is that why you still get him duck pajamas every year?" Her dad usually groans and grumbles when he opens a present from Aunt Brittany but he's never really explained why.

"Not _every_ year. Last year I got him slippers." Brittany admits with a wink. "It's our thing. I pretend I don't realize how much he hates it and he pretends he doesn't wear them all the time." Those slippers last year were _adorable_ and comfy as hell. There's no way he simply threw them in the back of his closet. "So what did you get Max-Attack?"

Shopping for her brother had been harder than she thought. Almost every idea she had was something he either wouldn't like at all, or it was something he would _love_ but would torture her with it for the next few years of her life. Little brothers were so annoying. "I got him a pair of new Jordan's."

"Doesn't he have like a billion of those?" Brittany asks.

"He's worse than Quinn when it comes to shoes," Santana shakes her head. "He's starting to grow really fast so we need to keep replacing them." She blamed Quinn for the fact that her son had more shoes than she did.

Brittany nods, Charlie had gone through at least four different shoe sizes as he grew within the span of two years. It had gotten so bad that their mom had gotten him a large pair of ugly boots to wear while he shot up. "Makes sense."

"They're a little bigger so he has room to grow in them." Bela adds, glancing at her watch. "I'm going to go wait outside for Tina," she mumbles as she stuffs some toast into her mouth. "I'll make sure to bring it with me to the party."

Santana nods watching as Bela shuffles off still eating her toast, she immediately brings her hand down on Brittany's hand as she tries to steal another cupcake. "I need to start working on Max's birthday breakfast, why don't you go see if CJ is awake and go play with him."

"Bacon?" Brittany asks.

Santana rolled her eyes and went to the fridge and grabbed some milk and eggs and a pack of bacon, pausing for a moment before looking at Brittany and grabbing two more packs of bacon. The things she did for this family.

~O~

Max studied his birthday cake, his eyes on the candles as everyone sang him Happy Birthday. It was already one of the best birthday's ever. He had gotten to meet a lot of members of his dad's new team and he and all his friends had gotten autographed custom jersey with their names on it. He had gotten a replica of his dad's which was super cool. He almost didn't notice that his parents weren't talking anymore and were acting _super_ weird. He bit his lip knowing exactly what he was going to wish for. He just wanted his parents to go back to being _normal_. He blew out his candles and immediately felt his dad mess up his hair.

"How's it feel to be seven years old?" Charlie asks.

Max grinned up at his father as he fixed his hair. "Awesome! Today has been the best day _ever_."

"Oh dear, however are we going to top this," Charlie asks smiling and winking cheekily. "How about we open presents now? So me and the guys can go and start getting ready. We're all playing hooky right now." Charlie adds with faux excitement, pointedly ignoring Santana who had just turned to grab the cake knife. They had managed to keep the pettiness to a minimum between them, but every now and again it seemed to crop up making the adults around them uncomfortable.

"Charlie—" Judy shook her head with a sigh of exasperation. Even though Max and his friends were practically glowing with excitement, the tension between Charlie and Santana was so thick it could be cut with a knife. It was practically a cold war between them. Things hadn't been _this_ bad since the tape leaked for the world to see.

"No mom." Charlie snaps. "Presents, right Max? Then we can cut the cake and I'll go warm up for the game." He didn't eat junk food before games as it generally sat in his stomach like a rock while he played. But he'd make sure to have some ice cream with his son later.

"Cool!" Max grinned obliviously. This was the best day ever.

Santana furrowed her brow with frustration but stayed quiet. As much as he pissed her off there were other parents here and the last thing she needed was someone slipping information to TMZ. She ignores the look from Brittany and moves to start cutting the cake. She wasn't going to let him get to her, especially not during Max's birthday party. "Bela, can you help me with the cake?"

Bela pushed herself off the wall, trying to avoid being in Charlie's line of sight. She felt guilty about this recent wrinkle in her parent's relationship, and more importantly she didn't want to get dragged into this. Maybe if she gave it time then everything would fall back into place like it did before. It wasn't exactly the same, but they had been close to being normal again. "Sure Mom."

Santana groans when Max squeals in delight as he opens some ridiculously expensive present from Charlie. She doesn't need to look to confirm that he's probably smiling smugly as he won his son's affection by buying him expensive shit. Trust Charlie to follow in Russell Fabray's footsteps. She's lost in thought and doesn't realize that she's cutting the cake in smaller and smaller pieces.

Bela watches her mom continue to add candles to the cake with a frown. It was weird the way her mom just silently seemed to be willing to take her Dad's snarky comments and clear attempts to ignore her. "Mom, are you okay?"

"Of course I am." Santana plasters on the fakest smile she can muster. She just has to get through tonight.

Bela reached over and pried the knife from her mother's hands. "I can cut the cake mom, maybe you can help dad with the presents. Or you know stop CJ from trying to steal Max's presents."

Santana turned immediately to look at CJ who was busy squirming in Brittany's hands, his eyes focusing on the pile of gifts for Max. "CJ—those are Max's presents."

Charlie looks up immediately from where he was handing his son gifts from the pile. He shifts his body, turning to Brittany and moving to take his son from her arms. "Come on CJ, let's help your brother open his presents okay? Let's not put the wrapping paper in our mouths this time. I know it looks pretty but it's just paper."

CJ squirms in Charlie's arms, uncomfortable with the tension in the room. He turns his head and sees the cake with wide eyes and lunges for it with all his might. Charlie grunts and shifts CJ in his arms which only makes him more upset. "Cake!" He screams loudly and struggles to break free but he doesn't move as he kicks and twists. "Leggo, I wan cake!"

Bela glances at her dad and places a piece of cake on a plate and offers it to CJ who immediately sticks his hands into it. "You know how to use a fork and knife CJ." CJ grins at her and smacks her in the face with his cake hands, causing her to scowl.

Charlie snorted and bit his lip when Bela glared at him, "He's just trying to share his cake with you. Come on it's—" CJ smacked him in the face after trying to push his hands in Charlie's mouth as he babbled and laughed. Charlie scowls as CJ paints frosting all over his face. "—Funny."

~0~

Santana watched bouncing CJ on her lap as Mike lobbed a ball up in an impressive alley-oop, as Charlie caught the ball and drained it with authority. The crowd was going wild and Max was currently hopping up and down like a maniac as Charlie flashed him a thumbs up. Max immediately raised his thumbs up in response, he had taken to rating all of his dad's dunks and there had been _many_ of them. "Your daddy is showing off again," Santana mumbled to CJ.

Brittany tilted her head at the comment, "Well, he's always played better when he knew that you were watching him. And considering how he's played the last two games? Mike informed me that the coaches ripped into him after his last game."

Santana's brow furrowed for a moment before she shrugged, he wasn't doing this for her entertainment. He was turning this game against the Utah Jazz into a farce all for Max's benefit. It was only the third quarter and he had already racked up a career high at forty-two. He'd already made ten assists and was dangerously close to hitting a very rare quadruple double. He was one rebound and three steals away from joining the history books. "You felt the tension during the birthday party, do you know how difficult it was to be the bigger person? I didn't want to ruin Max's birthday party." Santana whispers to Brittany as the crowd begins to chant defense.

"Max loves the both of you, but he's a seven-year-old boy and his dad is like the best thing since someone discovered bacon," Brittany nudges her gently. "If you want me to bully him into apologizing—"

"For what?" Santana whispers. "He's upset that I hid Bela's paternity from him. It's a valid reason to be upset."

"But it's not a license for him to be an ass." Brittany counters unapologetic when Santana shoots her a glare. "He's an adult and yeah it sucks but he's got to get over it."

Santana sighed and reached down to tap her son on the head. "Max, if you keep yelling like that you're going to lose your voice. And if you lose your voice I'm just going to pretend that you don't say no when it comes time to eat your vegetables. What's that you want more brussel sprouts?"

Max flopped back in his seat. "This is the best birthday _ever_. Do you think dad's going to get a quadruple—" Max's jaw dropped as his dad pushed his way into position to grab the rebound. He was about to start yelling when from the distance it looked like the center's elbow dropped on his dad's face hard.

The ref's whistle was completely drowned out by the outraged cries of the crowd. Max jumped to his feet and joined in screaming as loud as he could at the injustice. Santana winced as blood dripped through Charlie's fingers that were cupped around his face. The team's trainer ushered him quickly off the court and all of the players retreated to their appropriate sides while the floor crew tries to wipe up any stray drops of blood off the court.

"Mom?" Max turns to her worriedly. "He's going to be okay, right?"

"Your dad will be fine." She assures. "It's not his first broken nose and it won't be the last. I bet he's back on the court before they're ready for him to shoot free throws."

Max frowned, his dad's white jersey was covered in blood from what he could see and the refs had tossed the ball. "Can we go see him? He was _so close_! He probably did that on purpose!"

"Max," Santana sighed, Charlie had been playing loose and recklessly throughout the entire game a broken nose was _hardly_ the worst thing that could happen to him. "It was an accident, and I don't think they'll let us see him. You know how difficult it is to get to the locker room during a game. They have really tight security."

Bela grimaced as her grandmother squeezed her hand. "Besides, you know how dad is with needles. He probably doesn't want you to see him being a big baby about it."

Max smiled and turns to his mom, "Remember when we went to get our flu shots and the doctor needed to give dad candy to make him stop squirming?"

"Yeah, that didn't work remember?" Bela reminded him. She glances at her mom and smiles. "You got mad at him for being a baby and then you—"

"Yes, I remember," Santana said shaking her head. She had grabbed his head and kissed him as the doctor had stuck him with the needle. The kids had been sufficiently grossed out by the act. It was back when they had been married.

Brittany eyed Santana, there was longing in her voice and she knew she was going to have to call Quinn to do an intervention. Maybe, just maybe they could get their mother to join in and gang up on him till he calmed down.


	25. Chapter 25

_'We're supposed to be on Ellen in a week, and you can barely open your eyes and you look like that guy in phantom of the opera. So take off that silly mask of yours and let me get a good look at the damage, I'll take a few stills and see if my makeup people will be able to do anything about it.'_

"Your general concern for my wellbeing has been duly noted," Charlie replied gruffly from where he was laying on his brand new couch, wishing that he could take something stronger for the throbbing sensation in his face that left him with a headache. It wasn't even a clean break. which was why he was wearing the stupid mask to begin with, plus he had needed five stitches in the cut on his nose. "C J got spooked when I saw him after the game and cried when I tried to say goodbye. I think he thinks I'm the boogey man." He sighed, Max had been disappointed that he couldn't make a mark on basketball history, but he was happy that he was relatively okay. Bela on the other hand—he didn't quite know what to make of that relationship. It was strained and he had no idea how to fix it. He was still angry with her for throwing the stupid party to begin with and he was angry at Santana. There was a part of him that wondered if he was taking a bit of his anger on the whole situation out on her. It was something to think about.

Dani huffed a bit, ' _Well, it's your own fault for putting your face in the way of that elbow,_ ' she had seen the game and the replay, it really was a slick rebound but he hadn't reacted in time to avoid the elbow or protect himself.

"Goodbye Dani," Charlie grumbled hitting the end button on his tablet and tossing onto the black coffee table. He had been excused from practice and he'd be sitting out for the next bit. He was ready to play but Burt had laid down the hammer wanting to protect him as an asset. It was infuriating and he could already guess what people were saying about him. That he was soft, that he couldn't cut it. His eyes were still swollen and if Coach Beiste hadn't threatened to sit on him, he probably would have gotten right back into the game. _At least_ he had managed a triple double.

He groans reaching for his remote when his tablet begins to ring and the sound of chimes fill his apartment. At least his new security system was working. After the party he had made a few calls and had them come in and change his locks and put camera's up. Ones that he could check on his phone or tablet. He pulls it up on his tablet and raises a brow immediately regretting that decision as his face practically explodes in pain. He sighs and pushes a button on his tablet, unlocking the door. "What are you doing here?"

Brittany rolls her eyes as she opens the door, boys and their toys. Quinn was supposed to be here too, and if she had any decent blackmail on her then maybe she could have convinced her to make the trip to Cleveland. So now she was going to have to do it alone because _apparently_ flying to Cleveland is 'a pain in the ass'. "I came to see you. Mike had practice this morning and apparently you're excused from it because you broke your face."

Charlie studied Brittany, she was only carrying her purse. "So Mike kicked you out huh? I'm not going to beat him up if you two have a fight."

Brittany glowered at him, and resisted the urge to walk up to him and poke him in the face. "I'm here for an _intervention_."

Charlie glances at Brittany studying her for a moment before shrugging. "Well, good for you but I'm not lending you money to do it. You already owe me a couple grand." He grabs the remote to turn on the television.

"I don't _owe_ you a couple grand. That was a _gift_ and you know it." She snatches the remote out of his hand and turns the television back off.

"Paying your _rent_ and car payments isn't a gift, it's a loan."

"Shut up, it's not like you need the money and— _stop_ trying to distract me." She waves her finger in Charlie's face warningly.

"Oh this is an intervention for you. Okay Brittany, you need to manage your money better. I'm not your personal piggy bank." Charlie grumbles. "Quinn thinks that you need to manage your money better as well, but Rachel just thinks you're a free spirit—"

Brittany scowls, she'd definitely have a conversation with Quinn later about it. But right now she _needed_ to focus on why she was here. "This isn't an intervention for me stupid, it's for you." If he wanted to comment on her life he could plan his _own_ intervention.

"I'm taking over the counter pain killers, you know the league is going to test me the moment that I'm ready. I don't have a problem—"

" _Santana_."

Charlie snaps his head up and instantly regrets it. "Is _not_ my problem anymore."

"You are going to _create_ a problem. What the fuck is wrong with you? You think the rest of us missed you treating her like she was some leper?" Brittany holds up her hand to stop Charlie from cutting in. "I know. You're pissed."

"You have no idea. I'm absolutely livid with her. She hid something from me—something important. I don't know if I can forgive her for that." He was purposefully trying to be vague because even though Brittany was nosy as hell and generally tried to get involved when it was none of her business, he wasn't sure he was ready to talk about it.

Brittany bites her lip. "Does it matter? That her father might be someone else?"

"Of _course_ it matters." Charlie snaps. Of _course_ Santana had confided in Brittany, he should have guessed. It rankled him more than it should. He and Santana were supposed to be a team. And yet, here he was again on the outside looking in. It wasn't fair. "She made me think that Bela was _mine_ —"

"She _is_ yours." Brittany counters even though she knows that might not be the case. Santana refused to tell her the results of the test which made her suspicious but didn't really give her answers.

"She might not be. And Santana should have told me."

"And _what_? What would that have changed? Or are you planning on disowning Bela because she isn't the girl you thought you raised?"

Charlie's eyes narrow into a deep scowl. "That's not fair. I'm not him." He wasn't _anything_ like Russell. He _loved_ his kids and yes he was livid with his ex-wife but he was right to be mad. She had _lied_ to him for years. And he had just been the putz that had no idea.

Brittany nods but doesn't say anything. Her brother was an idiot and for a long time he had been woefully blind to their father's faults. She just wanted him to figure out his shit and get his family back together.

"I think I have a right to be pissed." Charlie counters. "And I _love_ Bela. But knowing that Santana had slept around? Yeah. That would have been nice to know. I sacrificed _everything_ to try to do the right thing by Santana and she should have fucking told me."

"So be pissed, but don't be an ass about it," Brittany retorts rubbing her brow. "Everyone could feel the _tension_ between you two and it made everyone else uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry, don't be an ass about it? You mean when Santana took all my shit and sold it? My shoes? My cars? When she took _our kids_ to Cleveland? You probably know that she thought about getting rid of CJ. I'm paying thirty thousand dollars for those kids, and that's not even including the fact that I'm paying for the nanny, their tuition, most of the money that I send her is going to that fancy car she drives and that damn mansion she lives in. My own son won't call me daddy and even when I'm free, even when I have time she _insists_ that I need to make appointments to see my damn kids. Don't be an _ass_ about it? You're seriously telling me _not_ to be an ass about it?" He had ignored her, he had been a bit petty but he was allowed to be after the last two shitty years of his life he _got_ to be a bit petty.

"You _cheated_ — _"_

"She _lied_. She _lied_." Charlie repeats getting angrier. "She lied, and here you are defending her to me. Like Santana can do no fucking wrong in your eyes. You're my _sister_. For fucks sake you're my sister Brittany, she got you in the divorce, she got all our friends. Rachel and Quinn, everyone is on her fucking side because I cheated years ago. Years ago. I wasn't carrying on some affair for years, I wasn't in love with them. I slept with them once and never saw them again. And after Kitty, there was no one else. It was just me being the husband I was supposed to be, being the father I was supposed to be."

"We're all on Santana's side because _you_ cheated. And guess what? Yes, it was years ago. But Charlie, she was _pregnant_ and she was pregnant when the whole world was asking why _she_ wasn't good enough to keep you. So yeah. We rallied around Santana because _all of us_ thought that you would pull on your big boy pants and grow a pair. That you would apologize and do whatever it took to keep her."

"But—"

"No. You let Santana walk out the fucking door without a second glance and proceeded to _throw_ money at her to make her go away. And I get it, you _are_ pissed and you have a right to be. But so did she. And what I'm _saying_ is that you need to be careful because the only thing you are going to accomplish by being a little bitch is ostracizing yourself from your kids."

" _I did_. I did grow a pair. I didn't _choose_ my career over her, I didn't do any of that _shit_ , I went to fucking Lima, and I begged her to take me back. I told her I would do anything, and I fucking meant it. Despite what Santana thinks, despite what you and Quinn think dad never put me up to it. The only thing Russell is guilty of is telling me how to protect myself. Dad never put a gun to my head, he never whispered in my ear and told me to fuck other women. I _did_ that."

Brittany frowns. Charlie's so angry and defensive but it's like he can't see past any of this. "Okay, let's say that you're right. Dad never forced you to do it. But let me ask you this Chuck, if you were in Dad's place and Max came to you. Would you honestly have done the same things that _Russell_ did?" When Charlie frowns, Brittany continues. "You know that your mistakes are your own, but you are a _good_ father and you would never pull that shit on Max."

"At the time I didn't know that dad had released the video. Santana had no idea either. I trusted him. He stabbed me in the back for a fancy car." Charlie admits. "I have no idea what else he did, I don't really care to know to be honest." Charlie sat up and looked at Brittany studying her for a moment. "Dad kept my secrets. He never lorded it over me till he thought the well was drying up. I made a mistake and I owned up to it. I let her have all that stuff because I thought if she had her pound of flesh, if I gave her everything she wanted, if I didn't fight her over _stuff_ , she'd calm down and we could work it out. I was wrong. I must be incredibly shitty at reading people. Dad. Santana. You."

"Me? I told you that Quinn and I rallied to her side because—"

"You _knew_ didn't you. You've known this entire time that she might not be mine and you never said a word. I thought you cared for me. But you and Quinn—you're just like everyone else using me as a piggy bank and being nice to me when it's convenient for you. Give Quinn 15k so she can have her baby, she can't even say thank you. I pay your stupid rent and your car payments, and whatever else you need because you are _terrible_ with your money. But it's okay, Charlie has plenty of fucking money."

"Charlie, it's not like that. Yes, she told me back then, but—"

"No. You know what? I'm done. I'm done with you and I'm done with Quinn and I'm done with Santana. Find someone else to guilt into being your scapegoat." Charlie is practically spitting with rage. He's done _everything_ to try and be the man that everyone wants him to be and where has it gotten him? Nowhere. So fuck it. Who the hell is he trying to impress anymore? His sisters were traitors and he didn't have to put up with their crap anymore. Santana fucking lied to his face and had no problems replacing him with the new man in her life. It was over and he needed to accept that and move on with his life. He was better off without her.

"Come on—"

"Get out." Charlie growled. He stood and stormed toward his bedroom. He didn't fucking care anymore. "If you aren't out of here in five minutes, I'll call the security team downstairs."

"Charlie—" Brittany winced as the door to Charlie's bedroom slammed shut with enough force to shake the entire apartment. That hadn't gone the way it was supposed to. If anything she had made the situation infinitely worse.


	26. Chapter 26

Santana sighs audibly at another lull in the conversation. Everything on the table looked perfect, from the Christmas Eve ham to the homemade buttermilk rolls. She had wanted tonight to be special, something for the kids to remember. Instead, her kids acted like they were being punished. Bela hadn't looked up from her plate in hours and Max had been in a sour mood all day. Even CJ had picked up on the discomfort and was carefully picking at his dinner quietly.

Why had she thought this was a good idea? Instead of the huge Christmas Eve bash that she was practically famous for, she had decided for something small, just her, Charlie and the kids. Tomorrow was already going to be stressful enough with the entire extended family making the trip. That had been the plan. She thought it might be nice for them to start working things out so the kids had a little more stability between their warring parents. She even had tried to invite him over herself, only to have him avoid her calls. Infuriated, she had invited Sebastian to come instead.

That had been a mistake. Clearly. The kids, Max especially, clearly weren't ready for a guest at their family dinners. But it had been too late to change her mind.

Sebastian frowns at the droop in Santana's shoulders. He knew she had been worried about how the kids would handle a family dinner with all of them and feels bad that it's not going as well as she wanted it to. He gulps, plasters on the warmest smile he can muster and tries to helpfully clear the silence. "So I hope it's okay, but I got each of you kids a little something."

"No thanks."

"Oh." Sebastian scratches his brow. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? What kid wasn't excited for Christmas presents?

Santana put down her fork. "Don't be rude, Max. That's really nice of you Sebastian." She offers him a grateful smile at the attempt. "Right Bela?"

"Sure." Bela agrees half-heartedly.

" _My_ dad will get me better stuff than _you_ ever could." Max mutters angrily. Christmas was supposed to be a time for _family_ and Sebastian was dumb. Why was he even here? It was probably _his_ fault that Max's dad didn't show up. Max had tried calling him _twice_ and Charlie hadn't answered. He scowls at Bela who elbows him.

"Enough." Santana threw her napkin down and stood. She was sick of Max's defiant attitude, "You don't get to be rude to guests. Go to your room."

Max tosses his fork and knife onto his plate loudly and pushes his chair back before stomping upstairs. "I'd rather be with dad," he mutters loudly as he passes his mom.

Santana stiffens, she had grossly overreached here by inviting Sebastian. She can feel his eyes on her and she forces a smile to her lips. "Just what I need more teenage angst."

"He's—seven," Sebastian reminded her. He reached over to touch her hand gently, noting how she immediately pulled away. "Christmas is a big time and I think that maybe I should let you and your family enjoy it. I'm not—I'm not going anywhere if you don't want me too."

Santana's jaw clenched for a moment, she couldn't _force_ her kids to like him. Between the three of them CJ liked Sebastian the most and she wasn't quite sure if that counted. Her son liked a lot of things that were bad for him. She lets out a sigh, "I'm _sorry_. I thought—"

"It's fine." Sebastian assures. This was what he signed up for when they started dating. He moves to give her a quick peck on the lips but thinks better of it at the last minute and instead offers a quick kiss to her cheek. "See you tomorrow?"

She nods and stands to walk him to the door, her mind racing with every step. She gives him a quick kiss goodbye and sighs as she closes the door behind her. She sighs as she closes the door and leans against it. How the hell was she supposed to handle this? Max was lashing out and angry, but she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault. She had pushed too much too soon.

Still, his behavior was unacceptable. Focusing on that, she strode confidently up the stairs toward his room, pausing when Max's voice came through the open door. "—but he's _dumb_."

 _'Buddy, no matter what, I'm always going to be your dad. Even if your mom is dating a putz. You and me, we're a team, okay?'_

Santana frowns as Charlie's comment comes through loud and clear and Max cackles with glee. Was this why her son had been a little shit? Because Charlie couldn't be enough of an adult to tell him to be polite?

"Do you think I should apologize?"

 _'To your mom?'_ Charlie pauses for a moment and Santana can practically hear the gears in his head turning before he sighs. _'Yeah, you should. You may not like him, and he may be a putz, but your mom is your mom, and you need to respect her and you need to be nice to her guests. But to Sebastian? No way.'_

Max laughs again. "I miss you."

 _'I miss you too. Just don't tell your mom we talked, okay? It's our secret.'_

"Cool." Max agrees, flopping back on his bed.

Santana bites her lip, well Max probably was never going to respect Sebastian as any type of authoritative figure hopefully he would take his father's words to heart and there would be fewer outbursts. She didn't think she could handle _both_ Max and Bela having outbursts anymore. "Max?" She pushes his door open. Charlie hadn't handled it perfectly and she doubted he would ever give his blessing. She watched as Max tossed her old tablet on his bed. "Talking to dad?"

"He's not picking up," Max lies and huffs. "I'm sorry I was rude."

Santana sighs and takes a seat beside him on his bed. "You were very rude, I'm not dating Sebastian to be a replacement for your father. He's just trying to get you to like him—"

"I don't want to like him. I don't like him, he's _dumb_."

Santana lets out a patient sigh, "He's a doctor Max, I doubt he's dumb. But I think you should just give him a chance. He's not going to be your dad, and I'm not planning on marrying him."

"He's your _boyfriend_ —"

"He will never replace your dad, Max. If I do get married again to someone else, then I promise that you won't ever have to call him dad, unless _you_ want to. I'm not trying to erase your dad from your life Max, I promise—"

"Then why did you get rid of all his stuff?" Max frowned. "His shoes, and his cars and his pictures and everything! He still has pictures of you and and—well his ring got stolen but he had _it!_ And he was super angry when it disappeared, that's why Bela's being punished that's what she said—"

Santana pressed her finger against Max's lip silencing him. "Your sister got grounded because she threw a party that got out of hand. She _lied_ to me and abused your father's trust in her. As for your father's _stuff_ —maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of most of it, but I was very angry and when you're angry you sometimes do stuff that you regret. I—see how it might have looked like I was trying to erase your dad but—it's difficult for me sometimes to be around all that stuff. It reminds me of him and a lot of times that makes me sad."

"But he said he was _sorry._ " Max protests.

Santana sighs. "It's not that simple Max, I know—sometimes I wish it was that simple. But you're _seven_ you shouldn't be worrying about your mom and your dad. So how about we go downstairs now and finish dinner and then we can go watch cheesy Christmas movies alright? Remember Santa is coming tonight so we all need to go to bed early tonight so he can come and give us presents."

Max's eyes widened. "Did you get the _good_ cookies?"

"Yes and the terribly unhealthy milk." Santana shook her head. Her son nodded pleased at this and she sighed trying to hide her smile as Max hugged her tightly before heading downstairs. She could make it through this holiday.

~O~

Santana checked her clock once more, it was just after four am and she hadn't been able to sleep. Which was fine, because it was Christmas Max and Bela were probably going to rush into her room and drag her out of bed so that they could see if Santa had come. Well, Max would rush in while dragging Bela with him, she was nearly twelve after all and didn't believe in Santa anymore. It was something Charlie had started from the time he had deemed that Bela was old enough to enjoy Christmas. CJ was still about a year out from being able to enjoy the _full_ Christmas experience, but they would get there.

She shifted on her bed turning over so she wasn't staring at the clock, hoping that it would make time go faster. Charlie had gone above and beyond to make sure the kids had everything they wanted and needed. Bela certainly didn't seem in the doghouse with all the gifts that she had received from her dad. All of which had been wrapped perfectly and delivered by a few days ago. She had spent a good portion of the night putting the gifts under the tree and arranging it so it didn't topple everything over.

Today was going to be one of _those_ days, and even though she had already done most of the food prep it didn't stop how much work she needed to do today. Her parents were making the trip up with Judy to give the kids their presents and join in the festivities. Brittany would probably show up with Mike for free food sooner or later. Quinn and Rachel would probably show up with even more presents for the kids, before they would go and spend the rest of the day with Rachel's parents. Then there was _Sebastian_. There was a _large_ part of her that questioned her decision to even invite him especially after Max's outburst.

But if Max's birthday party had been difficult, this week had been demonstrably worse. He had only spoken to her once and that was to arrange a time for the gifts to be delivered so Max and Bela didn't see them. The conversation had been curt and simply to the point before he had hung up after getting the details from her. She hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise. She certainly hadn't been able to extend an invitation to him to join in the festivities for today either. She did understand that he was recovering from his broken nose, but that still wasn't an excuse to sort of fall off the face of the Earth. Max had only gotten him one or two times this week, and the conversations had been short. Bela was still probably avoiding her father to some degree, only calling him when she _absolutely_ need to.

The idea that Charlie would simply get over this was beginning to ring a little false. She had no idea what was running through his mind. Max and CJ were his, but she had to wonder if he was questioning everything. He already assumed that she had only married him because he was going to be an NBA player. He doubted that she had ever loved him and he couldn't be farther from the truth. Maybe she should have said no when he had proposed, they could have waited, but he had never made her feel anything other than loved and cared for. Even when he had proposed, it wasn't about the fact that she was pregnant, he had simply loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life beside her. Though after she had yes, he had gotten super serious and informed her belly that she had said yes and that they were going to be a family. He had loved Isabela since he had found out that she was pregnant.

Maybe she hadn't wanted to burst that bubble that he had. She had been terrified that she was going to lose him. With Russell whispering in his ear, it had been a real possibility and a DNA test would have proven that Bela wasn't his. With Russell in his life it had pushed her to make decisions to protect herself, to make sure she didn't come back to Lima in disgrace. That even if Russell won, that she'd still be able to stand on her two feet.

Santana sighs and rolls over again reaching for her phone and tapping the screen. She hesitates for a moment before unlocking it and dialing his number. They were divorced, that was fine but she didn't want him to hate her. She waits for a second, but it immediately goes to voicemail and she groans flopping on the pillow. He either had his phone off or he had blocked her number. She'd try on Bela's phone later.

~O~

Bela covered her ears as CJ shrieked as he grabbed some of the torn wrapping paper and threw it in the air making it rain down all over them. She hadn't expected all this stuff, a new computer from Charlie—her dad. She had thought that she wasn't going to get any presents from him this year, but there were still ten or more gifts with her name on it from 'Santa'. She had come to the realization that the red 'Santa' presents were from her mother and the silver ones were from her dad. Her mom had then wrapped up her personal presents in green. While her dad's presents were the golden ones that had clearly not been professionally wrapped. She touched one, "Well, he tried again," Bela laughs looking at her mom.

"It's probably because he has such big hands," Santana shook her head, glad that the kids weren't depressed that he wasn't there. "He really should just invest in those gift bags." She looks over at CJ to make sure he wasn't getting to close to the tree to start knocking off ornaments. She had already lost five with him trying to eat them. "CJ! Over here let's open your next present okay? Let's see what Santa brought you apart from all these new books and DVDs. Max can you help? The big one please?"

Max got up, from where he was looking at his newest pair of Jordans with a huge grin on his face. He didn't even mind that CJ was getting bigger presents. He counted three gifts from his dad, two from his mom and a pile of presents from Santa. He grunts as he pushes the box towards his mom, wondering what could be inside. "Here you go mom."

Santana tries not to grimace at the huge box, it had been a pain to hide it, but it was a good thing that the kids never really went into the laundry room. It had also been a pain in the ass to get the present under the tree—or at the very least beside the tree. "Come on CJ, lets see what Santa got you," she calls again as CJ stumbles over and touches the box while looking at her. She plucks the bow off the top and puts it on CJ's head causing him to giggle and start attempting to open his present. He struggles for a few minutes before Max helps him pull off the paper to delighted squeals.

" _COOL!_ Bela! Look at what Santa brought for CJ!" Max's voice boomed through the room as Bela shifted and looked at the box.

"No way, he got a replica of dad's Shelby? That's actually pretty cool," Bela said getting up to rip open the rest of the packaging. "It even has a little trunk that you can put your stuff in CJ, isn't that cool—though I mean dad's making sure that you never ever have to walk again if you don't want to."

"Because _that's_ the best way to make sure my son hits his developmental milestones." Santana mutters to herself.

"Cool." CJ offers Max a toothy grin, looking at his older brother who immediately pats him on the head.

"Can we open it?" Max is almost more excited at CJ's present than he is with his own. This is _so cool_.

Santana sighs. "Maybe later once abuelo is here." At least she can make her dad put this whole thing together. If her suspicions are correct, there will probably be more ridiculous gifts for him to put together. Of course she had gotten her son educational things, like books and stuff but Charlie had once again gone for flash and very little substance.

"Alright—my turn!" Max said reaching for one of his dad's presents, he laughs at how badly it's wrapped before tearing it open. His jaw dropping as he notices the box containing an iPhone. "I GOT A PHONE!"

Santana grins while thinking of all the ways this was an epic disaster. She should have gone with her first instinct and re-wrapped all of Charlie's presents. Then she could have filtered through the completely unreasonable gifts. Max was _seven_. He didn't need a phone, who was he going to call? "That's great." She lied.

"Can I call dad on it! I can take pictures right! And do facetime with it right?" Max asks as he looks at Bela pouting immediately.

"I'll help you set it up when I set up my new one." Bela smiles at him. Eying the box it didn't have it's plastic wrap around it so it meant that their dad had probably opened it already. "But uh—maybe you should check and try and call dad on it."

Max looks at his phone and opens the box carefully, it's already in a case that's designed to look like his dad's jersey and even has his number on it. He pokes the home button and it lights up and he grins noting that it has a picture of him with his dad on it and he quickly unlocks it. "I've got to call him!" He goes to his contacts and grins when he finds his dad's number and quickly dials it.

 _'Hey guys!'_ Charlie answers on the first ring and Santana was pretty sure he had been waiting for the call. _'Did Santa come?'_

Max grins and starts talking about a mile a minute. "Yeah, but Dad. You got me a _phone_. That's so awesome!"

 _'I did._ ' Charlie agrees. _'But there's one more present that it looks like Santa dropped off at my place. I tripped over it this morning when I went to make my morning tea.'_

"Really? What is it?"

 _'I'm not sure. I'm going to text a picture to you and Bela, maybe you guys can tell me what it is?'_ He suggested, playfully drawing this out as long as he could.

Max was nearly dancing with excitement, until he feels his phone buzz along sides Bela's phone. He quickly checks his messages and he nearly drops his phone. He scrambles as he sits down. "No. way."

Santana frowns moving to see what had gotten both her kids speechless. "What did Santa bring—" Her own jaw drops and she resists the urge to simply grab Max's new phone and go on angry tirade against her ex-husband on how he could be so irresponsible.

"You got us a _dune buggy_?" Bela eyed it excitedly.

 _'No of course not, Santa did obviously.'_ Charlie sniffed looking at Max. _"This summer we can maybe head to the beach and try it out together."_

"Over my dead body." Santana mutters but the kids are too engrossed in Charlie and their gifts to notice. She shook her head frustrated and wondered why she should be surprised. Once again, Charlie had won some contest she wasn't even aware they were having. But for the next year they would look at all this _stuff_ and point out to their friends how much more he loved them. Never mind the fact that she did most of the work—making sure they had lunches and dinner ready every night. No, Charlie would swoop in with a few toys and be the hero only to miss basketball games and award ceremonies and leave a trail of tears in his wake.

"Well, I need to move this thing out of the way," Charlie said stretching a bit. "Enjoy your Christmas guys, you'll be able to see the dune buggy next time you come stay with me alright? Oh and Bela don't forget." Charlie reminds his daughter.

Santana narrowed her eyes, "Don't forget what?"

Bela shook her head, "That I can't shirk off my responsibilities just because it's Christmas," she lied with ease, as she nudged her brother. Max stared at her blankly and she sighed wondering why he was so slow. "I'm going to put some of my stuff in my room, I'll be right back. Max can you help?"

"I'm playing with my phone." Max turned back to his new toy.

Bela rolls her eyes. _"Max._ Come _on._ "

Max grunts but stands to follow Bela down the hall to her room. Santana chuckles when she hears an _'Oh yeah.'_ Come from her son and momentarily wonders what the big deal is. She momentarily hopes that they aren't staging some coup because she's not sure she can handle the two of them working together. It only takes them a few moments before they're back with Max carrying a gift wrapped gift.

"We—"

"I got you something!" Max said proudly holding up the thin present puffing out his chest, interrupting Bela and glaring at her. "I paid for it."

"Taking dad's credit card and handing it to the cashier does not mean that _you_ paid for it," Bela snaps at him shoving him gently. She flicks her attention back to mom.

"Yes it does! Dad said so." Max insists.

Bela rolled her eyes. "Fine but I designed it then," she crosses her arms over her chest looking at him as if daring him to contradict her statement.

Max shrugged and handed the gift to his mom, "Merry Christmas mom! Santa only gives presents to kids so we had to get you something."

Santana accepted the small box, glad that even though she hadn't been able to get a hold of Charlie she had sent Charlie's present through a delivery service that guaranteed they would deliver it by today. The kids—or more accurately, Bela—had helped her pick out a suit for the All-star fashion show and Santana couldn't help but sneak in her own present for Charlie. "Thank you."

"You don't even know what it is yet." Max pointed out.

"But it's from _you_ three, so no matter what it is, I will love it." Santana assured even a she began to open the present. Stopping when she noticed the light blue box with the _Tiffany's_ label written across it. She bit her lip, you didn't just wrap up Tiffany boxes, they for the most came in present form. But it was Charlie and he probably didn't know that and no one had bothered to tell him not to do anything of the sort, but it was the thought that counted and he probably hadn't wanted to ruin the surprise. She opens the box, taking a quick peek.

Her heart melts at the white gold circular pendant necklace. In the center it has intricate filigree dotted with five different colored stones, three on the outside and two directly in the middle. She vaguely recognizes her own birthstone next to Charlie's in the middle. All three of her children's names are written along a band that circumscribes the pendant and each kid's name is positioned next to their own birthstone. "This is _gorgeous_."

"I told you she'd like it." Bela pokes her brother.

"It's a girl thing," Max said crinkling his nose before pulling his new phone out of his pocket. He wanted to download games onto it. Santana rolled her eyes and flicked Max in the forehead before pulling him close and pressing her lips against his forehead as he squirmed. " _Mom!_ "

"Thank you." Santana repeats reaching for her daughter as CJ immediately tries to squeeze himself into the group hug that's forming. It's _almost_ enough to make her forget about Charlie's absolute refusal to talk to her about the gifts he was giving the kids. _Almost_. She'd be sure to go and have a long discussion with him _before_ the kids went to see him, at least then maybe they could actually start figuring some things out.


	27. Chapter 27

Quinn hummed as she fixed a plate for Rachel, the pregnancy had only revitalized her love for her wife and she didn't mind going back for seconds for her. The baby's room was nearly complete and in a few weeks they'd be finding out whether they were having a boy or a girl. Life was _good_. Perfect even and there was nothing that could ruin it—

"Quinn," Brittany whispered to her younger sister poking her side and immediately slapping on a pout. "Can you spot me the money I need for rent this month?" She asked keeping her voice down.

Quinn's brow furrowed in disbelief for a moment. "No."

"But I'll be _evicted_ and it's not my fault, I promise! I've just been flying out to see Mike! Do you know how expensive that's been and—and I really do like him. He might even be the one."

"So make Charlie give you the money." Quinn grumbles. It's not her fault that Brittany is terrible managing her money. She was already trying to get the money together to pay Charlie back for the fertility treatments. She hated the fact that she hadn't been able to take care of it herself and had vowed to herself that she would get the full amount paid back before the baby was born. It had been humiliating to ask her baby brother for money and she never wanted to have to do it again. If Brittany was short _again_ then that was her problem.

Brittany built her lip guiltily. "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't? It's Charlie. He just rolls his eyes and writes you a check." Quinn pointed out. He had long given up hope that Brittany was ever going to pay him back. He had even stopped complaining about it. To him it was just a fact of life that Brittany would use him as a personal piggy bank until the day he died.

Brittany looked around, but everyone was busy talking and drinking and generally being _merry_. She wasn't about to get everyone riled up and she hadn't exactly come clean to Santana about her attempts to help. Mike was busy listening to Max go on about basketball. The only person who could really help her was Quinn. "He's super mad at the both of us."

Quinn picked dropped the serving spoon back into the bowl. "Both of us?"

"Shush, Quinn, people will hear you," Brittany whispers looking around nervously.

Quinn rolled her eyes again but dropped her voice. "What the hell did I do?"

"Charlie thinks that we picked Santana over him in the divorce."

"Did he forget that I flew out to California to be supportive? I talked to _Russell_ for fuck's sake. I flew to California when the divorce was finalized and he found out that Santana was taking the kids."

"He slept in my spare bedroom—"

"Well, considering how often Charlie pays your rent he basically owns it even if it's in your name. So really he was just using what he paid for." Quinn snaps.

"Quinn—" Brittany whines.

But something about this doesn't make sense and Quinn didn't start her career as an investigative journalist for nothing. "Wait, why is this an issue _now_?" At Brittany's guilty expression, Quinn narrows her eyes suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"Nothing."

Quinn arches her brow and waits. Brittany's never been a very good liar.

Sure enough, Brittany cracks in under two seconds. "I was _trying_ to help."

" _Why?"_ Quinn hisses slapping a smile on her face as Rachel pokes her head in. "Hey, I was just coming back with the plate," she promises.

Rachel looks between Brittany and Quinn for a moment noting that Brittany has a guilty expression on her face and sighs. "I'll go back to talking to Santana, Maribel and Judy on what to expect. It's very informative Quinn and we both know you're having our next one. You should hurry up and join the conversation. I'm taking rather extensive notes."

"Uh—no thanks. The last thing I need is my mother scaring me about how bad her pregnancy was because Charlie was a fat baby."

"You were both fat babies, which is surprising given how much space was probably in there. Explains why mom got so round though." Brittany speaks up and smiles when Quinn turns to glare at her. "What? You've heard the stories."

Quinn sighed turning back to Rachel, "I need to help Brittany with her life choices, I promise I'll be there as soon as possible, but you know—" Quinn glances at Brittany before looking back at Rachel, "—don't hold your breath."

" _Hey!_ "

Rachel shook her head and headed into the dining room and leaned forward pressing her lips against Quinn's, "Good luck." She takes the plate from Quinn and heads back to where everyone was seated so she can continue taking her extensive notes.

Quinn smiles watching her wife leave before turning around to glare at Brittany, "What do you mean you tried to fix it? You know better than to meddle in their lives! And more importantly, how did you get me roped into this?"

"Well—to be fair, he's angry at you because I think he sort of expected you to like tell him that Rachel was pregnant and then you know. You know share a beer of a scotch or something. I don't actually think he wants you to pay him back."

"Of course I'm going to pay him back." Quinn hisses. She shakes her head; this is something that she can fix by at least giving him some of the money back now. "I can fix this; I'll see him later tonight—"

"He knows that we knew about Bela and didn't tell him."

"No. You _knew_ about Bela, I didn't." Quinn reminds her. There was no _we_ in this mess. "I found out later, and yeah I may have helped her get a DNA test but _come on_. I wasn't in on this whole conspiracy and my advice to Santana was to tell him. Just like my advice to Charlie when he called me asking me what to do was to tell _her_."

Brittany blinked, "Wait a moment you knew—"

Quinn held her hand up. "I don't meddle. I mean how did it turn out for you? It wasn't my place to tell Santana because I assure you that hearing it from me would have made the situation infinitely worse. It wasn't my place to tell Charlie that I knew either. One, I'm not a snitch; and two, I was helping them by attempting to get them to communicate with each other."

Brittany scowls. "I don't meddle either—" At Quinn's eye roll, she amends, "Unless they're being _dumb,_ which they are by the way. I was just trying to tell Charlie that he needed to man up and not be such an ass to Santana."

"You can make that argument for Santana as well, which is why I prefer to stay the fuck out of it." Quinn frowned and shook her head. "Now I have to go visit Charlie before we head back to New York. He's going to lord it over my head isn't he?"

"He's going to make like a comment about how he never has to buy you a present again, and you'll shove him and everything will be same. He's not dad. He doesn't think that you're not the baby's parent because you're not related by blood—and he says I'm only on Santana's side. He's a _jerk_."

Quinn laughs and softens a little. Brittany was right, Charlie was not the same as Russell, he had been and always would be her annoying twin brother. She would go and see him before they left, if only to clear the air and set things right. "True, but he's always been a jerk."

Brittany smirks but when Quinn doesn't say anything else, she clears her throat. "But for real, I still need rent for the month."

Quinn raised a brow, "I'm not enabling your poor money management skills Britt. Go on tour if you need money, but until you get a job I suggest you go ask Charlie, or Santana or our _mother_ —hell at this point I'd ask Mike if I were you. But you're not getting a penny out of me, I know I'm never going to see it again and I've got a kid on the way. I need to be smart with my money. The price of university is spiraling." Quinn sniffed indignantly before turning around so she could curl up with Rachel and inform her that they were going to have to stop by Charlie's place later.

~O~

Charlie grins down at his delivered dinner. After an insane workout, a fillet mignon burrito sounded incredible and it smelled even better. Which was why he had bought two. There would be no more Television-dinners, which only ended up making him feel pathetic and lonely. "Got to do this properly," he mumbles to himself as he grabs a napkin and tucks it into the front of his sweaty jersey. Burritos were generally messy and he wasn't going to stain his clothes like some idiot. No he was going to use a fork and a knife and be _civilized._

He turns on the television before picking up his fork and knife and moves to cut into the still steaming burrito. He's about to bring it to his lips when his doorbell rings, followed by a quick pounding on the door. He grunts at the intrusion, and is about to ignore it and go back to his food when someone presses the doorbell again, this time resting their finger on it. He puts down his meal and glances down at his phone and frowns. He jumps up and makes it to the door in three strides. "Quinn, knock it off."

She shoves her bag at him and pushes past him. "Here's your present numb-nuts." She didn't have time for apologies and for the most part she just wanted to get back to her hotel with Rachel and curl up with her.

"Merry Christmas Charlie," Rachel said shaking her head motioning him in for a hug. She immediately gets swallowed by one of his hugs, he had always been freakishly tall and she patted his back gently. "Thank you."

"For what?" Charlie asked turning and frowning when Quinn moved towards his food.

Rachel still held onto him firmly. "For giving us this amazing gift."

"What are you—oh. The baby. Yeah." Charlie steps away from the hug with an outraged cry as Quinn starts picking at his burrito. "That's _mine_."

"We're twins, get used to it." Quinn scoffs, taking a big bite before he snatches the burrito from her fingers. "Fuck that's delicious."

Charlie's jaw snapped shut and he glared at Quinn. After he had spoken to his kids, he had used the gym facilities in his building for most of the day, pushing his body to it's absolute limit. The burritos were his version of a Christmas dinner and Quinn was ruining it. "Why are you here Quinn? You could have just sent it through the mail."

"I would have, but Brittany told me about how I was on your shit list because I found out about Bela's questionable paternity a few months ago." Before her brother could hop in. "I told Santana to tell you. Just like I told you tell Santana, if you're going to be mad—"

"I'm not mad at you because of that, I'm mad because you couldn't bother to inform me that I was—I am going to be an uncle. I'm also mad because you're eating my Christmas dinner."

Quinn stopped from taking another bite of his burrito crinkling her nose. "This is your Christmas dinner? Seriously? I mean yeah I think Sebastian is full of himself—with his ' _oh, I'm a doctor'_ bullshit, but I mean why didn't you just show up? Santana has plenty of food. Better than being by yourself on Christmas."

"I wasn't invited. And even if I felt the urge to just show up, it's Christmas and I didn't want to make things awkward for my kids." Charlie grabbed his other burrito from Quinn. It was half of what he was going to eat but it would have to do. "I have Gatorade and water in the fridge Rachel if you want some. I don't have much for food since I'm rarely ever around."

"That's okay, we just ate." Rachel shoots a pointed glare at her wife that Quinn shrugs off quickly. "And I am surprised Santana didn't invite you, she told me that she wanted you to be there."

Charlie shrugs, he was supposed to be taking a step forward and figuring out the rest of his life. He certainly didn't want to have an argument with Rachel over what had been. "Well, she didn't and I'm fine with that."

"Liar," Quinn commented meeting Charlie's glare with one of her own. She had always been better at the look than he was and it didn't take long for him to look away. "Let me guess, you ignored her calls for the last week and a half? You're an idiot."

"She lied to me."

"Yeah, well you lied to her. Get over it. If you keep trading school-yard offenses, then Bela's going to grow up to be the only adult in your family."

"You mean my not even twelve-year-old daughter who threw a party at my place that trashed my apartment and had my wedding ring stolen—yeah the adult in the family."

"Well," Rachel interjects. "She's still your daughter right? I think, that if you and Santana don't come to sort of truce for the kids soon, then you're going to alienate them. Or worse, parent alienation is a thing, and I have read books on it as I've gone through my parenting books." Rachel smiled glad that she had Charlie's attention. "Bela is still your daughter Charlie, you don't love her any less and I understand how angry you are about it but nothing is going to change that. I know I'm hardly Santana's biggest fan but you need to put your kids first. You can't be petty when it comes to her phone calls because if she's calling because something happened to the kids and you didn't pick up—well you'd never forgive yourself."

Charlie grunted at this and looked away, as Quinn finished off his burrito and leaned back on his couch. "Look, whatever you choose to do, whether you decide to move on and attempt to find someone, I think you need to stop flaunting your romance everywhere. God that song that you and Dani did together is _everywhere_. Like did you really need to make a song with your new girlfriend—"

"Dani isn't Charlie's girlfriend. It's a wonderful showmance isn't it though," Rachel interrupts her eyes dancing in amusement as Charlie looks at her not saying anything as he studied her suspiciously.

Quinn narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, wanting to hear the scoop. "What do you know?"

"I know showmances, I've had plenty of them before—" Quinn snorts at that statement and Rachel scowls at her. "It's in the body language and even if it wasn't, Dani Harper is a lesbian so the chances of Charlie _actually_ dating her are slim to none."

Quinn frowns she had terrible gaydar but if Rachel says it, then it has to be true. "Well that makes sense, I thought you had finally learned to talk to women after all this time. I guess that was just wishful thinking."

Charlie's eyes narrowed, "I can talk to women—"

"You can talk to Santana and we both know she's the spawn of Satan. I mean Carlos seems like a nice guy but that's probably how he gets you to sign over your soul. It's how I would do it. My point is Charlie is that you can't talk to women, at least not the ones that you want to introduce to your kids. And because I'm your older sister, and its Christmas I'm going to give you some advice. Figure your shit out with Santana because you two were made for each other."

" _Quinn_."

Quinn smiles at Rachel getting up to move to her and leaning in for a kiss, she promptly gets rebuffed and she huffs. "I was just telling it like it is. That's why I have the ratings that I do."

"You smell like beef." Rachel turns up her nose at the smell even as her mouth salivates hungrily. This baby might as well be Quinn's biological child with how much it loved the smell of meat. Not that she could let Quinn know that.

Quinn smirks. Rachel's resolve to maintain at least a vegetarian lifestyle had been wavering but she was smart enough that she would let her wife think she was blissfully ignorant.

Charlie rolls his eyes. "Not to break up your love-fest, but Dani is my _friend_ and people _can't_ speculate about—"

"Charlie, you of all people should know that Quinn and I are the picture of discretion. Especially about _this_ , but if Dani ever needs someone to talk to—"

"I'm sure she'd be delighted to talk to America's second favorite lesbian couple."

"I'll have you know that we test _very well_ with the 18-25-year-old demographic." Rachel retorts. Ellen and Portia were _magnificent_ but Quinn and Rachel were just starting to make their mark. Rachel had full confidence that they would be able to set up their own empire.

"Oh, well excuse me. I'll tell Dani she can talk to 18-25-year old's mostly favorite lesbian couple." Charlie snarks at her. He can't help it, sometimes Rachel is just such an easy target.

"Thank you." Rachel grins firmly, completely disregarding Charlie's tone. "I know that it can be difficult being in the spotlight with your life under the public microscope."

Charlie just looks at Rachel. "You _do_ know that I'm more famous than you are?"

"For now." Rachel sang. Sure when he retired people would still talk about him but his mark on history would fade eventually, especially if he never got back with Santana.

"On a side note," Quinn said resting her head on Rachel's shoulders as she snaked her arms around her wife. "Brittany's broke again. You should probably bail her out."

Charlie rubs his temples slowly. "I'll write her a check but it's going to be the last one. Tell her to use Mike as a piggy bank."

"Charlie! You know Mike doesn't make nearly the money you do, and she is your sister—" Rachel lectured.

"Who needs to learn how to manage her money! I work for my money, you work for your money, Quinn works for her money. So does Brittany except she spends most of it on stuff she doesn't need and has no idea how to budget properly. I'd be more inclined to help her out if she knew how to do that."

Quinn shook her head, Charlie may be a little jerk sometimes but he still treated Brittany like she was his little sister, despite the fact that Brittany was three years older than them. "You know, I think we can stay for a bit keep you company before we head back to the hotel. So long as you shower. You smell _terrible_ , what were you doing all day?" She pulls Rachel towards the couch and flops down on it.

"I don't smell—that bad—"

"You do; I just wasn't going to say anything." Rachel admits laughing when Charlie scowls and puts his food down. She's sure that she sees a smile cross his lips even as he storms to the bathroom to take a quick shower. He was lonely, she could tell that by looking at him. She waits until she hears the shower starting to run before gently nuzzling her wife. "Quinn—"

"No," Quinn responds.

Rachel huffed, "You don't even know what I was going to ask you!"

Quinn smiled and turned to her wife, running a hand over her stomach. "You were either going to suggest that we have a quickie—"

"Why are you always thinking about sex?" Rachel pokes Quinn in the side.

"Or you were going to ask me to meddle. I don't meddle." Quinn finished looking at Rachel. "We can't force them to get back together. They need to do that on their own. They're both angry and they're both hurt but they have kids together, and I know they both love those kids more than anything. More importantly they both love each other. So we just have to wait. We both know that between the two of them Charlie is the patient one, and we both know how patient Charlie is."

Rachel shook her head; Quinn was probably right but there was no reason that they couldn't _shove_ them in the right direction.


	28. Chapter 28

Max huffed as he looked at his phone, his dad hadn't picked up all morning. He hadn't managed to talk to him since the New Year. He hadn't seen his dad in _forever_ and today was the last day before school started up again and he wanted to spend time with him. He flicked his eyes over to his mom who was busy on her tablet and huffed again, trying to get her attention. "Mom, he's not picking up!"

Santana flicked her eyes over to Max for a second before going back to the contract that she was reading for some endorsement deals of her own. She was still torn between being annoyed with her ex-husband and being amused. Max had called his dad non-stop, for everything. To show him what he was eating, if he sneezed. She was sure that it was driving Charlie crazy and he was already regretting it. "Max, it's _possible_ that your dad is just busy." With the All-Star game and the trade deadline and various sponsorship deals that Charlie was attempting to balance, this was usually one of his busiest times of the year.

"He _always_ answers for me." Max frowns. He knew his dad's schedule by heart and there was no reason for him not to pick up.

Santana sighed, she could sense the distress in his voice. "Max, you know what time it is and your dad has agents to talk to, meetings with the coaches and front office. People are going to be up on the chopping block and I think your dad is trying to build a championship team around him, so trades are going to be made. Plus, he has a lot of endorsements that want to get their campaigns up before the All-Star game."

Max scowled at this, "But he _always_ answers for me!" Max repeats getting increasingly agitated. He had barely gotten to see his dad over the break and he hadn't even been allowed to go any of his games. But he had been forced to be _nice_ to Sebastian who had ruined _everything_. "He does, or he—gives me a sign that he's thinking about me and he hasn't! I've watched all of his games!"

Santana frowned, it didn't seem like Charlie at all. He always catered to Max's hero worship in his own way. "He did just come back from injury Max; he's probably just focusing on getting back into it—"

"Career highs in points and three point shots and he nearly got a quadruple double again!" Max interrupts rudely.

"So he's focusing on the game, you know how your father gets especially during playoff time." Santana shakes her head. She'd be lucky if he grunted at her as he went over plays and analyzed every single team. She had learned to live with it.

"It's _not_ playoff time." Max stomps his foot angrily. His mom just doesn't understand how important this is.

Bela comes in from the den where she's been doing her homework to grab a well-deserved snack. Picking up an apple, she takes a bite and rolls her eyes at Max's near-explosion. "Don't throw a tantrum. Sometimes Dad doesn't answer because he's busy."

Max rounds on Bela, his anger surging at the closest available target. "Dad doesn't answer because _you_ messed it all up."

" _Max_ —" Santana warns, standing to grab his arm to turn him toward her.

Max shrugs off Santana's hand and steps toward his sister, shoving her as hard as he can. "No! Everything was _perfect_ and then you broke everything! Now he _hates_ us and it's all your fault."

Santana narrows her eyes and steps between her oldest children. Bela seems stunned at his rage and Santana turns to her son, "Max, your father doesn't hate you, he's just busy."

"She's not even my real sister!" Max spits. "I _hate_ her! I wish I could go live with Dad!"

"Go to your room." Santana barks, leaving no room for argument. "Bela is absolutely your sister and it's unacceptable to talk like that—" The doorbell ringing cuts her off and it's enough to break Bela out of her stupor as she turns to run to her room. She exhales slowly. "Max. You're grounded. I don't want to hear another word out of you, so go to your room. I'm going to see who is at the door and then I'm going to come up to your room and I'm going to confiscate some of your toys. You don't get to talk to people like that when you're upset."

Max's face went red and he clenched his fist for a moment before turning around and stomping away, making as much noise as possible. "I hate you!" He screams at her before stomping up the stairs.

"Don't wake up—" There's a loud bang as Max slams his door shut and the sound of CJ's cries can be heard. It was going to be a long day and, it wasn't even ten yet. She bites her lip, CJ could wait a few seconds more, but she had no idea who was at the door. She heads to the front door, hoping to god it wasn't some religious nut trying to convert her, or one of her nosy-ass neighbors. She yanks the door open and blinks at Charlie who is standing there rubbing his hands together, in a silly beanie and a thick leather jacket. She stares at him in surprise. "Where the hell have you been?" He looked absolutely tired and he had probably been avoiding Max's calls because he was tired. It probably hadn't been intentional.

"I caught the first flight out of New York this morning. I touched down in Cleveland like forty minutes ago. I came to take the kids out, well Bela and Max. CJ's too young. I know it's not my weekend, but it's the day before school starts and you had them all through the Christmas Holidays. So I'm taking them, I'll have them back by eight."

Santana opens the door wider for him to come in even as she scowls. "You couldn't have called first?" She snaps.

"I wanted to surprise the kids." Charlie responds testily.

"Never mind, just—wait here." Santana rubs her forehead frustrated. He really did have the worst timing possible. But before she could deal with any of that, she had to stop the screaming banshee upstairs. Just as she turns to make her way upstairs to CJ's room, the crying stops.

Charlie smirks smugly at the silence. "That's my boy, he knows his dad is here." It's petty, but he can't stop the urge to point out his superior parenting skills.

Santana narrows her eyes in annoyance. "You mean no?" She scoffs. "Sure." She looks up the stairs to see that Bela is currently rocking CJ in her arms as she brings him down. "Thanks, I was just about to get him—" She stops when her daughter avoids looking at either of them. "Bela—"

"I'm going to go to my room." Bela announces.

Charlie frowns as Bela hands CJ to Santana and practically runs away. The only thing that stops him from running toward his daughter and tracking snow throughout Santana's immaculate house is the small hitch in her voice and the way she won't meet their gaze. "Bela—"

She practically runs away and Santana shakes her head warningly. "She needs a minute." Santana still needs to follow through with Max and then unravel what she's sure is a mess of teenaged emotions.

"What the hell happened?" Charlie hisses, his voice low so that it doesn't carry upstairs. Bela looks _devastated_ and as a father it's his job to make sure that never happens.

" _Your_ son happened." Charlie glances down at Santana's arms confusedly and Santana rolls her eyes. "Not that one. The one in his room that's been trying to call you for hours because he thinks you haven't been giving him your usual 'signs'."

"Shi—crap." Charlie corrects, mindful of the nearly two-year-old in Santana's arms. "I forgot to turn my phone back on when we landed. What happened?"

Santana frowned and bit down on her cheek, resisting the urge to tell him to go to hell. Maybe he could step up and actually help her out with this whole parenting thing. "He threw a tantrum and informed me bluntly that he hated me and wished he could live with you, which is fine. But what he said to Bela, about her not being his sister? That was—"

"Maximus Esteban Fabray-Lopez!" Charlie's voice boomed through the house as he stepped towards the stairs. There was the sound of a door opening and cautious footsteps as Max approached the stairs.

"Dad?" Max blinked rubbing his eyes a smile breaking out onto his face, as he missed the look on his dad's face as he ran towards him to hug him. Maybe his dad could take him away and he wouldn't have to live here with his mom and Bela. "You're here! Are we going to go get ice cream now?"

Charlie caught him and hoisted him up as if he weighed nothing so he could look directly into his face to see how angry he was. "After what you _just_ said to your sister? And your mother?" He places Max back down watching as his son shrinks back. "You're not CJ's age, you don't get to throw tantrums when things don't turn go your way. I fell asleep in the car and I forgot to turn on my phone. I'm disappointed in you."

Max gulps. He's never really experienced this weird pang in his stomach. "But—I missed you."

"I don't care if you thought I was never coming back; you _never_ talk to your mother that way. I don't even want to hear you _suggest_ that Bela is not your sister. Bela is your sister, your older sister."

Max's face twists angrily, "But she's always mean to me and calling me names—"

"I have two older sisters who to this day call me names and make fun of me. That doesn't mean that they aren't my sisters. They are. They have always been my sisters and I will love them and protect like you're _supposed_ to do. It's their job to tease me. But what you said to both your mom and Bela was _disgusting_ and I will not tolerate it. I don't care if this is your mom's house, you're grounded Max. Hand over your phone."

Max's face fell in shocked outrage. "What? No! But _Dad_ listen, I—"

"No way, Max. I can't _believe_ that you would treat _anyone_ the way you treated your mother and sister. So hand it over. I'll give it back when I determine that you've learned your lesson." Charlie extended his hand for his son.

Max teared up immediately, "But daddy—" he whined looking at his mother for help.

Santana shook her head. If Charlie was going to take a hard line with their son so that _she_ didn't have to be the bad guy, then she'd support him all the way. "I agree with your father. It was completely unacceptable. I know things have been hard, but that's no excuse to say something like that to your sister."

"Why not? It's true!" Max stomped his foot furiously. "That's not _fair!_ Bela stole all your stuff and she's not even your kid! I am."

"The _son_ I raised would never have spoken to his mother like that. The _son_ that I raised loved his sister more than anything. Right now, what you're acting like is a spoiled brat who didn't get his way. As for Bela, she's serving her punishment with _dignity_ and has actually been working on regaining my trust. She _learned_ her lesson and I'm telling you right here and now Maximus. Bela is my daughter. She is my daughter and she is your sister. If I hear those _words_ out of your mouth again, I'm going to go to your room and I'm going to take every last bit of your things. All your toys, all the jerseys and shoes. _Everything_. I'll show you what it means to be _not_ my son."

Frustrated tears pool in Max's eyes. His dad is his _hero_ and the thought of disappointing him makes his entire stomach flop uncomfortably. But this wasn't his fault! His dad didn't even live with them anymore and if they had never moved to stupid Ohio then Max wouldn't have to worry about his dad answering the phone. They were supposed to be a family and they _weren't._ His mom had her life and he never even got to see his dad. It _sucks._ He turns to Santana, glaring at her. "Why do you ruin _everything_?"

"Max!" Charlie barked in shock. He's ready to do exactly as he just threatened and take every single thing he'd ever bought for his son and head to the nearest goodwill.

But Santana was unfortunately used to these outbursts. Aware that her son is lashing out and hurt at the same time, she bends down to his level and meets his eyes. "I'm sorry that things don't go the way you want them to. But you're father is right. We're a _family_ and—"

"No we're not! Because Dad apologized and you like stupid Sebastian. I _hate_ you!" He turns and sprints to his room and slams the door as hard as he can.

Charlie raises a brow as CJ starts to cry again. It's enough to cause him to turn to his son and take him from Santana. "What was _that_?"

" _That_ is what happens when you're _not_ the favorite parent." Santana retorts, pinching her brow. "If you don't mind holding CJ for a while, I probably should talk to Bela—"

Charlie clears his throat. "I think, I should take Bela out for a bit. Give me a few hours and Max will probably be a bit calmer. I'll talk to him then." He's trying to think this through and that seems like the best solution. He can't bear the thought of Bela thinking for a second that she's not his 'full' daughter.

Santana gestures to the stairwell. "Be my guest." Charlie kicked off his shoes and she watched as he carried CJ up the stairs before sighing. It was odd, to watch him be the disciplinarian. He had handled his business and while Max was still a bomb waiting to go off he had still done what needed to be done. It was sort of—hot in it's own way. Charlie rarely ever took charge he usually left it to her. It wasn't because she was a woman it had more to do with the fact that he was absent and he usually had no idea how to begin to do it. It was something to think about at the very least.

Charlie knocked on Bela's door, "Bela. Get dressed we're going out for a bit." Charlie knocked on the door again. "Bela! _Bela!_ I have two older sisters you know I can do this forever." Charlie kept knocking grinning when CJ began to hit the door. "Even CJ wants to see you! Everyone wants you to come out of your room!" Charlie called out. He hears Max's door creak open but he chooses to ignore his son for now. "Bela! _Come on_!"

"Go away." Bela grumbles through the door.

But that was all Charlie needed to get through to her. She was just like Santana, it was almost uncanny and the one thing that neither Bela nor Santana could resist were his dorky charms. _'Hello, can you hear me? It's so—'_ Charlie forgets most of the words even though he swears he's heard the song a million times. _'—nanana, I'm sorry.'_ Deciding he really doesn't know most of the words he jumps to the part that is relevant. _'Hello from the outside!'_ He crooned as loudly as he possibly could.

Bela yanks the door open with an unimpressed look on her face. "You _really_ don't know the words to Adele?"

"I have no idea who that is," Charlie admits honestly pulling off his hat as CJ stumbled into Bela's legs hugging them. He puts it on her head, and if it's possible it looks sillier on her than it does on him.

" _Mom_! Dad doesn't know who Adele is!" Bela calls out pulling the beanie from her eyes. She rubs at them a bit. He had always been a bit of a weirdo.

Charlie smiles. "Get dressed, I was going to take you to the Quicken Loans Arena for a bit so you and your brother could help me pick out my best dunks and see if this new insane dunk idea I had was any good. I guess I'll have to talk to my teammates about it instead." Charlie hears a sound escape from Max but his son quickly closes the door quietly. He shakes his head at it "But let's do something fun together. What do girls do for fun these days?"

"Get pedicures and talk about boys."

Charlie pulls a face, "No. What if I buy you a pony?" He asks hopefully.

" _Dad_."

"Fine." He huffs. He is well aware that Bela is somewhat messing with him, but he _needs_ to make sure she knows that she will always be his princess. "I guess I can do pedicures. Proper foot care is important, but _no_ boys until you're 45."

Bela rolls her eyes and giggles. No matter what, some things never changed.

~O~

Santana finished cutting off the crust off Max's sandwich, and jumped as CJ honked the horn on his car laughing as he did so. She frowns at him and he laughs and attempts to drive away but smacks into the island. "This doesn't fill me with hope for when you're fifteen and you tell me you want to start learning how to drive." She informs him flatly, watching as the wheels spun as he attempted to move again, but all he did was bang into her cupboards. She sighs and bends over to shift the car so it had a path out of the kitchen, the thing was his favorite present and she had been forced to buy a few extra batteries just to keep the thing going. 45 minutes of play time was not enough for CJ. It was cute watching him go babbling as he did so and shrieking with laughter when he bumped into someone. "Come on CJ, let's go see your brother."

"Ax?"

"Yeah lets go see Max, maybe he's cooled off." Santana said picking CJ up out of his little car. Almost immediately he reached for the food on the counter squirming for it. "Just like the rest of the boys," she mumbled. He had just eaten, and if he decided that he wanted to eat as much as Charlie did then he was going to need to be more active. She shifts him in her arms and carries both him and the food upstairs.

Max opens the door before Santana even has a chance to knock. He wraps his arms around her tightly. "I'm _sorry_ I didn't mean it."

The sudden hug nearly causes her to topple over but she braces herself. She grunts slightly as she shifts CJ so she can easily put him down, glad that he's running into Max's room instead of heading down the stairs. "I know mijo. I know."

"I was just sad." Max sobs against her dramatically. Santana mentally reminds herself that she's never going to let Max spend time with Rachel or Brittany ever again. They are the only ones he could have picked up this level of drama from.

"I know." She soothes. CJ picks up one of the errant basketballs from Max's floor and starts to bounce it. God help her if CJ ends up having _any_ sort of hand-eye coordination because she's never going to live through that nightmare. "But that's no excuse for what you said to your sister."

"It's just not fair!" Max grumbles looking at his mom. " _I'm_ supposed to be dad's favorite and now he likes Bela better than me! She doesn't even _like_ watching dad do dunks!"

"One, your father doesn't like Bela more than you. He loves you all equally. Two, Bela isn't interested in basketball as a whole, but your dad had this whole day planned out for the both of you. So his day probably would have been like taking you to the practice courts and showing you a few of his moves and then getting a pedicure later after going for lunch, at a place you both can agree on. Your dad's not perfect, but he would have made sure that you both had fun today."

"But—" Max's bottom lip quivered. "Bela is a girl and she isn't even his and CJ's a baby. I'm supposed to be his favorite, we're supposed to be a team! Me and dad!" He protests.

"Listen to me Max. Bela is your sister and your father loves her just as much as he loves you. It's not a competition. All because he's upset with you, doesn't mean that he doesn't love you, he's just angry. What you said hurt Bela deeply, because she sees you as her little brother and she loves you a lot you know. You know when you were around CJ's age you used to want to play with her all the time and she would sit you down and the two of you would watch your dad play and she used to get just as excited as you do now. Maybe not for dunks but because she could see her dad. Saying that she's not your sister, saying that you hate her made her cry and the one thing your dad hates more than anything is seeing any of you cry. So yes he got upset with you but if Bela said the same thing you did, _I promise you_ he would have gotten just as angry at her as he did with you."

"It's just not the _same_." Max finally pulls away, his face dripping snot. "Dad _hates_ me and I didn't even do anything wrong."

Santana bites her tongue and rubs Max's back soothingly. "I promise your dad loves you," she replies with a sigh. There was nothing she could do right now. Max was jealous, perhaps Charlie shouldn't have taken Bela out without him, but Max needed to learn that his words and actions had consequences. "Look, Max your dad is going to come back soon and he's going to talk to you about your behavior today. I get mad at you when you play basketball in the house but that doesn't mean that I don't love you. So why don't we get you cleaned up and then you can eat your sandwich—" Santana stared at CJ who had grown bored with throwing the basketball around and was eating the sandwich she had made for Max. She groans inwardly, "I'll go make some more sandwiches okay? Can you watch CJ for a bit?"

~O~

Bela swallowed as she looked over at her dad who was attempting to put on his seatbelt while checking the messages on his phone. They had gotten pedicures like she had wanted and he had even let her pick the color for his toenails. She had gone with a bright neon pink; it had been a joke but he had done it without question. He really was a weirdo and she leans against his arm as his driver takes them back home. "Dad?"

Charlie shifted a bit so he could put his arm around his daughter as he continued to check his hectic schedule for the next few days. Photoshoots, commercials, and another huge meeting with Sue, plus Dani was on his case about rebooking her appearance on Ellen. "Yeah? You hungry, I'm sure we can get some food before we head back. It can be unhealthy if you want, technically it's my cheat day. I haven't had a burger in weeks though and your aunt Quinn basically finished my burrito the other day—"

"Yeah—that sounds good but I wanted to talk to you about something—private," Bela nodded towards the driver.

Charlie eyed the man in front for a moment, "Rod? Find a place to park and take a smoke break alright? Give us—" He turns to Bela.

"Ten minutes?" Bela asks.

"Twenty," Charlie corrects, he had no idea what his daughter wanted to ask him about. He could only pray that it wasn't about boys. They had agreed that Santana would give Bela the talk about all that _stuff_ and he'd talk to the boys when it came time. But if his daughter was going to ask questions then _he_ was going to do his best to answer them. Now if he could only remember what he had learned in health class back when he was sixteen. He had spent most of the time staring at Santana with a goofy grin. She had thrown stuff at him to stop him from being weird.

"Would you like me to leave the car running?"

"No, I think we can manage for twenty minutes, car's plenty warm right now." Charlie informed him. He knew all about the fact that there were camera's in the back and he wasn't going to take the chance even if he liked Rod well enough. But it was one thing for him to do something stupid and have it broadcast to the whole world, Bela was still a minor and he didn't want to take the chance with her. Charlie went back to looking at his phone while trying to _discreetly_ watch Bela who seemed nervous. He waits though until Rod has parked and left the car pulling out a pack of cigarettes before turning to his daughter. "Okay, Bela— I know your body is going through some—uh— _changes_ but that's all perfectly natural. I mean I wouldn't know but—"

Bela stared at her dad who was fiddling nervously, it takes her a moment to put together what he's talking about and she turns a bright red and smacks his arm. " _Gross_ — _dad_ —no! Mom already gave me the talk!"

"Oh thank _god_." Charlie mumbles mostly to himself, letting out a sigh of relief. He had dodged a bullet there. "Sorry, I just—and you said you wanted to talk and you're sort of at that age where you know— _puberty_ and boys and—"

It was sort of funny how everyone at school though her dad was so cool, he got nervous and embarrassed easily. On the court he oozed confidence, and he was very good at faking it but now he was probably just a regular dad who got all nervous about these kinds of things. "I want to do—a test—you know. To see if—"

It was a sobering moment as his general embarrassment faded away. "If I'm your dad," he finishes for her. Of course she would with how things had been between them and what Max had said—of course she would want to get tested. "Bela," he sighs running a hand through his hair. "You're my daughter, no matter what anyone says. You're my little girl. I have pink toenails right now, I wore a tutu for you as a kid and a tiara and let you smear your mom's lipstick all over my face. By the way your mom was pissed about that, apparently they had stopped making that shade and we were wasting it." It's enough to bring a smile to his face at the memory, but he quickly sobers up. "You're my daughter and nothing, and I mean nothing is going to change that. Not even a stupid paternity test."

Bela bites her lip, feeling the tears starting to build up. "I just—I wanna know. I'm tired of not knowing. Can we please—" She feels her dad shift and immediately pull her into a tight hug as he rubs her back and she hiccups before the tears start to flow freely.

"Okay. Okay, just let me find someone that I trust and we'll do it alright?" He's caving but he can see the pain that this is causing her. It shouldn't matter, but the situation had been so bungled. "But you've got to promise me Bela, that whatever the results of the test is. I get to be the one walking you down the aisle when you get married and glaring at the putz who somehow convinced you that marrying him was a good idea. I get to be your one and only dad."

Bela laughs at that into her dad's shirt. "You'll still love me?"

"Always." Charlie vows, he didn't care if Bela wasn't his biologically. He had cried at her birth and he was man enough to admit it.

Bela pulls away and rubs her eye, trying to pretend that everything was okay. It was a big deal but she was her mother's daughter and needed to play it off. "Is that how you married mom? You convinced her it was a good idea?"

"Well, I certainly talked a good game, your mother might see it a bit differently. Given where we are now though—" Charlie trails off and pats Bela awkwardly and sighs. "Yeah, I really got lucky. Don't marry a putz and don't marry someone like me. It's weird and creepy."

Bela shook her head, her dad thought everyone was a putz. But her dad made her feel safe and loved and more importantly her dad loved her mom. She could tell from the smiles he got on his face and the raw pain she heard in his voice. It was the same ones her mom got when she talked about him.


	29. Chapter 29

Charlie helps Bela out of the car, carrying the food that he had brought back for Max and CJ. He knew he was going to get a look from his ex-wife about junk food but his kids were active enough that he didn't feel that bad in his choice. He smiles at his daughter, they had decided to keep their plans just between them for now, and he'd see if Sue knew anybody. This test was for him and Bela to _know_ for certain and no one else mattered.

That being said, he felt a little guilty keeping this from his ex-wife. But it's not like he had the test results in front of him right now, that would come later and he had no idea how he was going to take it. He pushes the doorbell and waits for someone to open the door, glancing at Bela who was rubbing her hands together.

And waits.

And waits.

He frowns and looks at Santana's car parked in the driveway. She was definitely home from the looks of it and he was sure she would have sent him a message if she needed to step out. He nudges Bela, "Push the doorbell again."

"You just want to get me in trouble," Bela mutters to him but does what he asks anyway wanting to get out of the cold weather.

"Fuck, I'm _coming_." Santana barks, yanking the door open and looking like she's been on the front lines of an epic battle. She also looks more beautiful than she has any right to, but Charlie files that away for later. "Oh. You're here. I thought you said a _couple_ of hours."

"It's just after three." Charlie observes. He frowns and observes the epic destruction around him, toys are strewn almost everywhere and it looks like _someone_ decided to graffiti Santana's entry way with crayon drawings that reach about three feet off the floor and cover the whole wall. CJ is sitting on the bottom stair, grinning wickedly. "Uh, what happened?"

" _Someone_ decided to redecorate." She shoots a pointed glare at her toddler who giggles.

"Oh."

CJ looks up at Charlie and nods. "Bad." He declares proudly.

Santana rolls her eyes. She hadn't even put CJ in time out, she had nearly stumbled over him when she was making her way downstairs. _That_ had been the only warning to his newfound artistic skills. "He's got a lot of energy; I'd take him to the park but it's freezing outside so why don't you play with him after you talk to Max."

Charlie studied CJ for a moment and then looked at the walls for a moment, "You know—your walls don't look _that_ bad—"

"You're the one that got him that car, that he doesn't ever really get out of, he's not burning off as much energy as he possibly can. It's been a pain to get him down for naptime as well." Santana points out looking at him. They needed to teach him boundaries and maybe she had been a little lax with CJ, but at this point in time both Bela and Max were on a cliff and she needed to pull them back before they fell. If Charlie was finally picking up the slack, then he could tag in.

"CJ, do you want to hang out with your Daddy?" Charlie asked excitedly.

CJ grins. "No!"

Charlie holds up the food in his arms. "I have _dinner_." He rustles the bag for emphasis and CJ cocks his head to the side to watch Charlie calculatingly.

"Za?" CJ asks hopefully.

"Nope. It's _better_. Burgers and french fries." Charlie announces and CJ scrambles up from his spot on the stairs. Their kid _loves_ burgers and Charlie's pretty sure Santana has been feeding him organic baby stuff instead of the best fatty burgers in Cleveland.

"'Hungy!" CJ declares, toddling up to Charlie and taking hold of his pant legs to tug him toward the kitchen.

Santana narrows her eyes, not sure if she should be amused or annoyed at this development. God help them once CJ entered adolescence. "You do know that our son isn't a dog, right?"

Charlie shrugs and allows himself to be tugged toward the kitchen. "Close enough, Right CJ? You're a good boy." He pats him firmly on the top of his head. "What does a dog say?"

CJ turns to Santana and gives her a wide grin. "Woof." He agrees.

Bela laughs, and Santana turns to her, "Don't encourage him. I can just see the blogs now," Santana cringed. She was being dramatic she knew that she was but it seemed to cause Bela to laugh harder as Charlie scooped CJ up and placed him in his chair before opening the bag and placing a kids burger and some small fries in front of him. "Where did you two go?"

"Pedicures! And we got a facial mask, well—dad's beard got in the way and he kept eating the cucumbers but it was fun. Dad has pink toenails." Bela answered.

"Pink?" Santana turned to look at him. "The guys will make fun of you."

"Let them, good foot care is important and more importantly I get paid more and more importantly the trade deadline is coming up quick. So I doubt it's going to be a huge thing." Charlie responds watching as CJ began shoveling food into his mouth. "Careful bud you don't want to choke!" He grimaced when CJ began to babble sending food spraying from his mouth. He shook his head and moved to the island and grabbed two burgers and two large fries before kicking off his shoes. "I'll see Max now, and then I'll come back and wear this little guy out. I got you a burger and if you don't want it I'll eat it when I come back downstairs."

"Of course you will," Santana mutters shaking her head. She really shouldn't, but Charlie had an uncanny ability to find the best burger shops no matter where he was and the bag in the kitchen smelled _divine_. What the hell, she reasons, filming for the new season won't start for a few months. "But someone has to save you from yourself, don't think I don't already smell the cheeseburger you downed in the car."

Charlie gapes at his ex-wife. "How do you _do_ that?"

Santana scoffs. "Go parent your son."

Charlie grunts at this and passes his daughter who flashes him an encouraging smile. Before turning to her mom who had unwrapped a burger for herself. "Dad tried to give me the talk."

Santana laughs, an inelegant cackle that would be mortifying if the idea of Charlie talking to Bela about sex wasn't so amusing. "Did he explode?"

"Almost." Bela giggles.

"Traitor," Charlie muttered, shaking his head his cheeks a deep red. He would stay and defend himself but first he needed to deal with his son. He sniffs dramatically and walks up the stairs and stands in front of Max's room and knocks on the door before opening it a second later. "Max?"

Max looks up from his bed but doesn't stand. He fiddles with his hands nervously, as if he doesn't know exactly what to do.

Charlie sighs. "Can I come in? I think we need to talk."

"Do you hate me now?" Max whimpers and Charlie rushes to his side. Sometimes it is easy to forget that his son is still just a child. Sure he might be able to rattle off stats like he's a computer, but he is just seven years old.

"Of course I don't hate you." Charlie assures. "I brought you a burger and fries." He waves his hands around a bit and his son bites his lip. "Plus you know I have pink toenails which I think look fantastic."

Max crinkles his nose at this and reaches for the food. "Really?"

"Yeah I do, but we need to talk first before you know I show you how awesome my toenails are." Charlie said letting Max take his burger and unwraps his own. "I don't hate you Max, I'm just disappointed with you, that you threw a tantrum. I get mad all the time especially when the ref gives a terrible call but I don't throw a tantrum and start throwing punches—mostly because I am a hundred percent sure I'd get my butt kicked and then I'd be fined and suspended. I also don't get angry enough to say _terrible_ things to someone else. Because there are _consequences_ Max. What you said to your sister was very mean spirited and I know that you're better than that. That's why I'm disappointed in you."

"But she's not even my real sister." Max grumbles under his breath.

But Max is still young enough that he doesn't know the art of being quiet enough not to be overheard. "She _is_. And after our talk today, I don't ever want to hear that you've uttered those words again. Bela is just as much my daughter as you are my son. I love you both and we are a family."

Max makes a face, he can hear the finality in his father's voice and he huffs as he eats his burger. "I'm supposed to be your favorite. You pay attention to Bela and CJ and I thought if Bela wasn't your daughter you'd spend more time with me and you'd tell me to come live with you again. We're not a real family."

Charlie raises a brow, "Max, you're _seven_. You _can't_ live with me, not with all the travelling I do. You need to go to school it's important. Besides you got a good thing going on here. I mean if you move in with me you'll have to eat what I eat, and we both know that you don't want that." He sighs and decides to start picking apart everything that his son said. "We are a family Max, all because your mom and I aren't together it doesn't mean that we love you or your sister or brother any less. You love it when Bela plays with you and gives you attention, and I know she loves you a lot too. That's what makes a family that love and respect. I don't have a favorite, I love each of you equally."

"But you don't you always have to watch CJ and you took Bela to watch you do dunks and she doesn't even really like your dunks not like I do!"

"CJ isn't even two yet. He's sort of helpless and if you don't watch him bad things happen, and he could hurt himself. I know having a toddler around means that my focus is split but that doesn't mean that I don't love you. As for Bela, we went to get a pedicure and we talked and got some food Max. I didn't take her to see any of my dunks. I was going to leave CJ at home with your mom and spend the day with the two of you before your little outburst."

Max frowns at that revelation. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." Charlie nudges his son, "She even asked if we could come back and get you and I said no. You don't get rewarded for bad behavior."

"She did?" Max asks frowning when his dad nods. He bites his lip, "But I was really mean to her— "

"You know when I was really angry because one of Bela's friends _stole_ my wedding ring? Well you told me not to be angry at Bela anymore."

"You were really mad and it was scary," Max admits.

"Yeah, well she didn't want me to be mad at you. You know I'm a bit jealous, both your aunt Quinn and your aunt Brittany would have totally bailed on me if I had gotten into trouble. They didn't really stick up for me in those situations. I didn't really stick up for your Aunt Quinn either and we're _twins_." Charlie sighs, "I want the three of you to be close and to love each other, and I think you owe your sister a huge apology Max. Don't you think so?"

Max swallows, and nods. "Yeah," he mumbles quietly.

"And I'm going to have to take your phone until I can trust that you understand." Max nods sadly and hands over the beloved device. Charlie takes it and puts it in his pocket. "All the stuff we have, Max we're _lucky_ but none of that matters without each other. You and Bela might fight now, but as you grow up you'll realize that having a sister is actually pretty awesome."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Bela will probably help you with girls if you're too embarrassed to talk to them yourself, and she'll probably give you semi-helpful advice." Charlie pointed out and smiled at his son. "But don't distract me Max, hand over your phone."

Max bites his lip as he pulls out his new phone and hands it to his dad, "But I won't be able to call you whenever I want—"

"You can use your mom's tablet or Bela's phone if you ask for permission first. I'm going to be super busy until _after_ All-Star weekend but then things are going to be back to normal as we go through the home stretch."

"Are we still going to see the All-Star game?" Max asked watching as his dad thought about the answer carefully. " _Please_."

"No more of this Bela isn't my real sister?" Max nods earnestly and Charlie reaches over with his grease soaked hands and runs a hand through his hair. "If you're good and by good I mean do all your homework, help your mom out around the house especially with CJ then yeah, I don't see why not."

Max grins pleased with the answer and hugs his dad tightly. "Thank you! I promise I'll be good."

Charlie pats his son's back gently. "You can start by helping your mom clean up CJ's artwork on the walls by the way. Apparently it's _my_ fault that he's got so much energy."

"He likes sitting in his car and running into stuff." Max frowns, CJ liked chasing him with the car and it was annoying.

"Hmm, sounds about right," Charlie shoved the rest of his burger into his mouth and emptied the rest of the fries and chewed. "Alright I'll put him to sleep before you know it. That will really get under your mom's skin."

Max opened his mouth to say something and then decided against it with a shake of his head. His dad always lost against his mom. It was hilarious though.

~O~

Santana scrubs at the spot just behind the door a final time before finally giving up. That was as good as it was going to get tonight. Max had abandoned her hours ago to 'help' Charlie wear CJ out and based on the squeals that had been coming from the family room for the last few hours, then at least Charlie was keeping the boys from getting into any more trouble. Even Bela had joined in on the fun, but now everything was eerily quiet.

That wasn't a good sign.

She stands, arching her back as it aches from being in the same position for hours. She glances back and swears she can still see the black marker and crayon designs across the wall. She might have to re-paint. She steps back and surveys the damage again, stepping on one of CJ's toys as she does. "At least it isn't lego," she mutters to herself wincing. Max's lego habit had been a nightmare and he had never been any good at it. It was probably why he gave it up.

She picks up the trail of toys that seem to lead toward the family room where a movie was playing softly in the background. Frowning when she sees Charlie's feet on her couch, she hated when he put his feet up like that and she moves to smack them off when she notices that Charlie is asleep with CJ curled up on his chest a protective arm around him as he snores. Max was curled up beside his dad on the oversized couch, sprawled out, Charlie's other arm protecting him from falling as he drooled on her expensive couch.

"They fell asleep like five minutes into the movie," Bela informed her mother without looking up from her phone. She nodded towards the television as the credits rolled to let her mom know that it had been two hours since the three of them had moved.

Santana flicks her eyes back to Charlie and her two sons and frowns a bit. "Are they—are they _all_ drooling?"

"It was worse like an hour ago," Bela informs her. At least CJ was drooling on their dad's shirt which had a giant wet spot.

Santana studied the scene in front of her for another moment, before deciding to simply go with her gut instinct and just accept that this was by far the most adorable thing she had seen in a while. "Take a picture of this and send it to me?"

Bela rolls her eyes but does as her mom asks. "There. Why couldn't you take it yourself?"

"Because I don't want to lose the blackmail of your father drooling on my genuine leather couch. That cost almost fifteen thousand dollars." Santana glances down at the picture and saves it as her wallpaper.

Bela notices the weird look on her mom's face but doesn't comment. It's late and she's had an emotionally eventful day. "I'm going to go to bed." She gives her mom a hug but Santana holds on for just a second too long.

"You know, no matter what, that your dad and I both love you, right?" It's been Santana's greatest fear for a long time, that Bela would somehow feel unwanted or like she was somehow less deserving of Charlie's affections.

"I know mom." Bela rolls her eyes again at the uncharacteristically cheesy level of affection. "Good luck shepherding these weirdos to wherever you need them. You know they sleep like the dead right?"

"Trust me I know." Santana grumbles shaking her head as she debated which one she wanted to start with. She could carry CJ to bed no problem, she'd deal with giving him a bath tomorrow. Max could walk to bed which just left Charlie. She sighs and walks over to the couch and gently shakes Max awake, watching as he groaned before opening his eyes. "Time for bed Max."

"Don't wanna." Max grumbles, and shifts closer to his Dad. "We're hanging out." He closes his eyes again.

Santana shakes her head at how similar all three of them are. "I know you were, but it's time for bed. You fell asleep." She shakes his shoulder again and helps him sit up. "Come on, bedtime."

The movement is enough to get Max moving and he stumbles to his feet. She's played this game with him enough to feel fairly certain that he'll make it to his bed without much assistance.

One down, two to go.

Leaning down, she moves to slip CJ out of Charlie's arms only to have Charlie hold onto their son more tightly. "Of _course_ you're not going to make this easy for me." She mutters to herself, keeping her voice low. CJ _sometimes_ slept like the dead but she's superstitious enough that she doesn't dare chance it. She pries Charlie's arm from CJ and lets her child flop against her while balancing him on her hip. She nudges Charlie hard on his shoulder. "Hey, it's late."

"Nnn—Don't wanna." Charlie grumbles and shifts on the couch. His eyes shoot open when he realizes that the weight against him has lessened. "Where's CJ—?" He jumps to his feet in a panic.

"Right here. Calm down, he's sleeping."

"Oh." Charlie relaxed back against the couch and feels a wave of fatigue wash over him. He was _exhausted_ and tiring CJ out had been much more work than he had expected. "I'll call my driver to come get me, just—give me a minute?"

Santana frowns. It's not _that_ late but she can tell that Charlie's worn out from today. Frankly, she'd be surprised if he wasn't. "No, stay here." She insists.

Charlie nods, too tired to argue. "That would be awesome." He follows her blindly up the stairs and past the kids' bedrooms to a part of the house he's never really inspected before. Just after she opens the door, he flops down on the king-sized bed and expects himself to be asleep the moment he hits the pillow. The squeal of the springs beneath him and the jabbing lumps in his back seem to have other ideas. He shifts a couple of times, trying to get in a better position before opening his eyes to glare sleepily at his ex-wife. "This bed sucks."

"It's not that bad." Santana reasons.

"It's lumpy." He complains. It definitely _is_ that bad. Where did she find this thing? It was practically a torture device and if he had any strength left at all, he would get up and go back to the couch. At least _that_ was comfortable.

"Well I had to do _something_ to keep Brittany from moving in." Santana teases.

Charlie shakes his head emphatically and wiggles on the bed a few more times, trying to get comfortable. "No. She likes Mike too much." He gives up after another three seconds and sits up in bed. "I'm sleeping in your bed."

"Like hell you are!" Santana responds immediately. She should have let him call the damn driver, but he probably would have fallen asleep in the damn elevator going to his apartment.

"Fine I'll go sleep with Max, he'll probably love it—" Charlie mumbles before yawning, it didn't matter to him if his feet hung off the bed.

"Charlie you're a grown man, and Max isn't five. You're not hogging his sheets because you can't deal with a lumpy bed for _one_ night." Santana reminds him.

"Then Bela—"

"That's not going to happen," Santana said bluntly.

"CJ—"

"Charlie you can't _fit_ in a crib. As amusing as that will be I'm not going to let you crush our son because you can't make do. And even if you don't crush him, CJ will use your body as a stepping stone to get out of his crib when he wakes up." Santana rolls her eyes and adjusts her hold on CJ who still hadn't woken up. "So enjoy the bedroom."

"But Santana—"

"Goodnight." She declares with finality. She watches him whine pathetically on the bed and shift but she turns to put CJ down, she wasn't going to fall for it. "Come on big guy let's put you down for the night." She smiles at CJ and shoots one last glare at her ex-husband. She heads to CJ's bedroom and puts her son down, in his crib gently pulling his favorite blanket on top of him. She gently rubs his cheek, watching as he rubs his face in his sleep. "Sleep tight," she mumbles and leans down to kiss her son's cheek before making sure that the crib was secure. She takes a few steps glancing at the night light and checking to see if the monitor was on before leaving his bedroom. He was just across the hall from her for easier access. She liked her children close and CJ she could already tell was going to be a handful.

She barely makes it to the door before something catches her eyes. Charlie grumbles out a curse as he stumbles into the doorframe. "What are you doing?"

"Going back to your couch." Charlie rubs the back of his head. That couch had been far more comfortable than the lumpy mattress.

"To drool on my expensive couch? I don't think so." Santana smirks, leaning back against CJ's open doorframe. At times like this, it's shocking to think that this is the same man who was an international superstar for his athleticism.

"I don't _drool_." Charlie furrows his brow.

"Yes, you do. And all your kids do too, so thanks for that."

"My kids are amazing!" Charlie mumbles and yawns. "I need to you know look pretty tomorrow. Photo-shoot."

"So you're finally shaving that rat's nest off your face?" Santana teases.

"No. I look hot!" Charlie insists moving towards the stairs only to be intercepted by Santana. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't trip down the stairs. How's that going to look? People will think that I tried to murder you."

"Like you would _try_ to murder me. If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead." Charlie mumbles, sighing when Santana begins to tug him along. It was always the tiny people who dragged him places. "Santana, just let me sleep on the couch, I'll put a blanket down."

"I am not getting the couch reupholstered Charlie. You can sleep in my bed. I'll sleep in the guest room." Santana sighed, he had let her sleep on his bed. It was only fair.

"Is your bed comfy?"

"Super comfy." Charlie smiled at this and flopped onto her bed the moment he was in range. She studies him for a moment. "Don't do anything weird in my bed Charlie. That means no midnight snacks. Don't think I didn't notice the fact that I woke up covered in crumbs when I was at your place."

He sniffs the bed, almost overwhelmed with a sweet scent that's uniquely Santana. "That smells nice."

"I bathe, so of courses it does." Santana smirks and watches as he kicks off his socks and snuggles into the covers. She wishes she had the chance to wash the sheets and clean up, but she hadn't really expected to be housing her ex-husband for the night.

Charlie grunts and pulls the covers up around him, feeling his whole body relax. "Mmm, I love you." He mumbles before starting to snore softly.

Santana raises a brow for a moment, things were still weird between them. She had no idea what he felt about the Bela situation, but he was no longer outwardly hostile anymore. The kids health and well-being seemed to be the most important thing to him. She stretches and shakes her head before going to grab some extra pillows for him. Despite what people thought he was the one that liked all the useless pillows on the bed. She tosses a few more onto the bed and sighs when she notices the drool already. "How do you even do that?" She questions no one in particular and climbs onto the bed to wipe the trail from his beard.

He reaches out and grabs her wrist, wrapping his fingers around her arm gently. "Don't go." He murmurs.

It's ridiculous and he _clearly_ can't mean it. He's still drooling for heaven's sake. But something about his sleepy plea has Santana falling down onto the bed next to him. This doesn't mean anything. It _can't_. But her mattress _is_ comfortable as hell and she doesn't really even intend to fall asleep. What could it hurt, to just lay there for a while? "I better not feel anything in the morning," she grumbles at him even though she doubts he can hear her. He shifts and wraps his arm around her tightly in answer and Santana feels the soft even lift of his chest against her back. She just intends to lay beside him for a while and closes her eyes to bask in the familiar soothing comfort.

~O~

Charlie groans a bit and rolls onto his back. It had been the best night's sleep that he'd had in a _long_ time. And he could still remember _that_ dream. "Mmf," he groans mostly to himself. No wonder he was hard as a rock right now. He immediately slid his hand down his shorts and wrapped his hand around his dick. Santana—she'd been everything in his dreams and he could still smell her.

He was still hurt and angry with her, he still felt betrayed but that didn't change the fact that Santana was by far the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Even if he had been with other women, it had never compared to being with Santana. " _Fuck_ _Santana."_

The words pull Santana from her own deep sleep. Her ex-husband and children might sleep like the dead, but she never had. It only takes her a few seconds to come to her bearings. It's more amusing than anything and Charlie's still in that sleepy state between being asleep and being awake. "What the hell are you doing?"

Charlie's eyes snap open and he jumps back a little, his hands still down the front of his pants as he stares at her shocked. "What the hell are you doing here—holy shit is this a dream?"

Santana reached over and pinched him hard causing him to yelp a bit and finally withdraw his hand from inside his pants. "I told you not to do anything _weird_ in my bed," Santana reminds him glaring at him as best as she could this early in the morning.

"You did?" Charlie looks around, he couldn't remember much from last night beyond CJ curling up on his chest and Max attempting to do the same. "Your bed? I thought I was in your guest room!" Charlie wiggles back. "Oh, fuck. I'm so sorry—"

Santana rolled her eyes. "It's fine, not like I'm not used to you doing weird things in bed anyway. At least this is better than crumbs."

The door to Santana's bedroom bursts open. "Mom, I'm _starving_ and CJ—" Max pulls up short as his parents freeze.

Charlie feels the same way he did when one of his sisters or his mom had walked in on them in high school. "Uh, hey Max."

"Dad! What are you doing here?" Max gasped. Today was the best day ever. He didn't remember his dad leaving last night, but he _definitely_ didn't expect him to be around for breakfast.

Another voice comes from down the hall and Santana feels Charlie's hard member soften as Bela scolds her brother, not even bothering to come down the hall. "Don't be dumb, Max. Dad doesn't live here."

"He's in bed with mom! What does that mean Bela?" Max yells back.

"Uh—Max," Charlie coughs forcing himself to sit up. At least Max's presence had fixed what was going on down there. "Yeah I sort of stole your mom's bed last night and you know your mom doesn't like to share."

Santana flicked her eyes between the two of them, noting Max's look as disbelief as Bela poked her head in and crinkled her nose at the two of them as she held CJ. She had already finished putting on her uniform for the day. "Gross are you two—?"

"No. We're not. I just came to get your father out of my bed," Santana lies briskly as she smooths her hair. "He attacked me with a pillow, which means that you three have free reign to smack him with as many pillows as possible while I go get breakfast ready before Tina gets here."

" _Santana_ —" Charlie complained immediately as Max grinned widely and moved to grab a pillow on the ground. "Not the face Max. I need my face to make money today—ow I just said not the face!" Charlie grumbles scrambling out of bed.


	30. Chapter 30

Santana adjusted her glasses on her face and inhaled deeply as she looked over at her children. Max had managed to get into the bar in the limo and was currently drinking some juice with CJ while Bela was nervously tapping on her phone. She turns to look out the window, being back in LA, it was like entering another world, one that had her heart pounding in her chest. She was anxious, with the paparazzi, the cutting remarks from people who didn't know her, it was like walking back into the lion's den.

Cleveland was not some _paragon_ of fashion, and even though Charlie's child support and alimony payment came in on the fifth of every month, it wasn't like there were the high-end boutiques that New York and LA were famous for. And even if there were, she didn't have anyone to impress anyone. She didn't even care to impress her _rich_ neighbors, who simply wore the gaudiest and outrageous outfits as if that was going to impress her.

That desperation, the superficiality of it, reeked in the air, masking the broken dreams and promises that LA was known for. Leaving it all behind for the life she had now? Had been a good decision. There was a culture that she truly didn't want to raise her kids in. Yes, that culture was everywhere but the last thing she wanted was for any of her children to end up on some trashy reality show where they simply showed off all their stuff.

"Do you remember the rules Max?" Santana asked turning to her son who was in the process of reaching for another sugary drink. She sighs inwardly, in about ten minutes he would inform her that he needed to pee. At least CJ was still in diapers.

"Stranger danger?" Max offers with a shrug.

Santana shakes her head, "Well, yeah, I don't want you talking to strangers Max, but you also need to be careful what you say in public. There's going to be paparazzi here, and whatever you say they might overhear and twist it. Like if you say something like 'I miss dad' tomorrow it'll be in every magazine and on the internet that your father is a deadbeat father. If anyone asks you anything about your family, you say no comment."

"What if I say that I want a puppy?" Max shifts in his seat excitedly. He kind of remembers living around cameras and a bunch of people asking them questions, but this is different.

Bela rolls her eyes. "Then people might say that mom and dad spoil us, or that they neglect us. Trust me, it's better just not to say anything." She remembers the cameras and paparazzi better than Max does and she's kind of glad it's not something they have to worry about on a daily basis.

"Well what about CJ?"

"CJ isn't even two yet, no one is going to take him seriously." Santana shakes her head reaching over as CJ turns to look at her opening his mouth and babbling a bit. She reaches over and gently brushes some of his hair out of his face. "Just like your dad," she shakes her head. She had all but given up on cutting his hair when he freaked out every time she took the clippers to his head.

Max narrowed his eyes at his brother. "I want to—"

"When you're eighteen you can decide how you want your hair, but until then I know you Max, you won't take care of it and I'm not going to be picking sticks out of your hair. Or looking at how greasy it is. As much as I prefer your father with shorter hair, he does actually take care of it most of the time."

Max huffs and flops back against the limo seat. "Are we there yet?"

"About ten more minutes." Santana assures.

"And dad got a private suite for us?" Max confirms. He's been talking about this to all of his friends and they were so jealous. He just wants to make sure that nothing has changed.

Santana raised an eyebrow, she wasn't coming back to LA for anything less than a _luxurious_ penthouse and Charlie had grudgingly delivered. This had been decided months ago He had even paid for a butler for the entire trip. "Yeah, he's in the hotel across the street from us, and we're meeting him for dinner." She turns to Max, "If you see any NBA player you make sure you go through your dad if you want any autographs. You know some of them don't like being bothered when they're with their families, it's _respectful_."

"I know! I'll be good," Max promises his dad still had his phone, and he was trying his very best to be the best son ever. He glances at his mom, "Did you tell dad how good I've been? I got an A on my spelling test! And—and I did all my homework!"

Bela rolled her eyes, "You know he probably forgot he had your phone," she points out. "It's been nearly two months anyway, so he's probably totally forgotten that he has it."

"Dad wouldn't do that!" Max insists looking at his mom for confirmation.

Santana bites her lip, "I'm sure it's somewhere safe," she promised making a mental note to remind Charlie. He had probably forgotten that he was punishing Max, but if she was being honest she still thought Max was still a bit young for a phone.

Max turns to argue but Santana is spared by the ringing of her phone. She glances at it for a moment before deciding to ignore it. Sebastian, things were entering a cooling off period between the two of them. It just simply wasn't working; they were like two puzzle pieces that simply didn't completely fit. Perhaps if she didn't have kids then Sebastian and her could have worked but from where she stood it simply _wasn't_ going to happen.

"Is that Sebastian?" Bela asks.

"You mean the putz?" Max corrects crossing his arm over his chest.

"None of your business and what have I said about calling him that?"

"Not to do it to his face?" Max responds with a smile as Bela laughs.

Santana grumbled, wondering why she had decided that having kids was a _good_ idea.

~O~

Charlie narrows his eyes at Dani. "For the last time, _no_. I'm not introducing you to Santana just so that you can dream up new fantasies about _my_ wife."

"First of all, she's your _ex_ -wife and second of all, what do you know? It could be true love." Dani counters, smirking. She's only _mostly_ serious that he has to let her meet her celebrity crush, but the other part of her loves getting under his skin like this.

"They're going to be here any minute. And I'm sure you think you can seduce her but you don't know Santana. You're not going to be in control of the situation and then the next thing you know you're on a tattoo table somewhere about to be tattooed with her name on your ass."

"Wait—what? You have her—" Dani glances down at Charlie's butt for a moment and looks back up at him. "I saw the video; you didn't have her name on your ass!"

"That's because I was apparently too drunk to consent to a tattoo, and I managed to talk my way out of it." Charlie rolls his eyes. He had been naked for a lot of that talking but that was beside the point. "Look, go away Dani—I'm exhausted and I don't need some drama in my life right now."

"Go away?" Dani gasped with mock offense. "Is that how you talk to your very best friend?"

"You mean the current pain in my ass?" Charlie retorts in a biting tone. Dani needed to leave before—

" _DAD_!"

Charlie froze as everyone in the hotel lobby turned to look at Max who was currently running towards him like a rocket. He shifts his body to catch him, his eyes catching Santana's for a moment and noticing the fake forced smile that let him know that he was a dead man walking.

Max crashes into his dad hugging him tightly, "It's All-Star weekend! And you've totally got to win!" Max pauses and turns to Dani narrowing his eyes. "Who are you?"

"Max. Remember your manners." Santana snaps, she swallows the anger immediately before smiling at Dani. "I'm sorry, Charlie aren't you going to introduce us?"

"I wasn't really—she just sort of showed up— _ow_!" Charlie grunts when Dani elbows him in the ribs.

"Dani Harper," Dani smiled extending her hand and winking at Bela. "Hey Bela, hopefully I'll be able to come out in March to make up for the cancelled concert. Happy belated twelfth birthday though."

Bela merely gapes at Dani in stunned awe. Sure, she had met her that one time before, but this was _Dani Harper_. It's only when Max giggles that she pulls herself together. "Thanks."

"You must be Max, your dad told me all about you!"

"He has?" Max grins at his dad. "I talk about my dad _all the_ time. Do you know what his field goal percentage is for the year? It's only gotten better since he joined Cleveland. I calculated it myself! Dad showed me how to do it."

"That's pretty advanced for a seven-year-old, you must be super smart!" Dani gushed.

Santana shifted uncomfortable with how this was going and cleared her throat, "We've had a long flight from Cleveland to LA, so how about we check in," she shot Dani a testy smile as she rolled CJ away from her. It was _humiliating_ , to be caught off-guard like this and he should have given her the heads up. She felt Dani's eyes sweep over her and _knew_ that Charlie's new girlfriend was sizing her up. She met Dani's gaze with an arched brow of her own, she wasn't _about_ to lose out to some half-brained singer.

"Dani was just—"

"About to invite all of you to dinner with us." Dani finishes for him.

"That's not—"

"On me of course!" Dani interrupted still smiling at Santana like an _idiot_.

"I'm going to order gold encrusted steak then," Charlie muttered to her. "With the most expensive wine," he adds grumbling.

"That's generous but I think—that we're a bit tired, especially CJ," Santana said briskly. "We'll order some room service; you know some _family_ time before Charlie gets busy for the entire weekend."

"That's a great idea." Dani agrees brightly. This was _perfect_ , Santana was just as awesome as she thought. "Charlie and I will go get pizza and the rest of you can get settled."

Santana turned to Charlie and raised a brow at him watching him squirm for a moment before grabbing Dani's arm and pulling her away. "I'll be right up," Charlie promises as he practically pulls Dani to an empty space just out of earshot of his family. "What the _hell_? What are you doing except making sure that I die a _slow_ , _painful_ death!"

"Well nothing really, because watching you squirm is hilarious." Dani smirked. "But _damn_ Santana is even hotter in person."

"I am aware." Charlie rolls his eyes. "Go. Home. This might be a _joke_ to you, but that's my family so please just let me have this with them? Tonight was supposed to be _easy_ and now I'm going to have to deal with Santana pissed at me because she thinks we're dating."

Dani sighed. Charlie was fast becoming one of her best friends and she did want him to have time with his kids. But there was a flaw in his logic that maybe Dani was the only one who noticed. "Exactly. She's pissed at you because she thinks we're _dating_."

Charlie looks at her blankly. "Exactly. So _go home._ "

"No, you Neanderthal. She's _jealous_. And I'm not saying you should intentionally try to get under her skin, but if she's _jealous,_ then maybe—"

"Maybe I still have a shot?" Charlie laughs dryly at the suggestion. "No. She's dating someone _and_ we aren't in some weird romantic comedy geared for twelve-year-old girls."

"I'm just saying—"

"Go home Dani, I'll see you at celebrity All-Star game tomorrow." Charlie interrupts shaking his head. Dani was _crazy_ and he seriously just wanted to get this weekend over with so he could sleep for a week. He needed to stop being so damn good at his position, everyone else had a week off, but with all the appearances he'd been forced to do he wasn't feeling rather relaxed.

Max tilted his head as he watched his dad, he had attempted to follow them when his mom had put her hand on his shoulder. "She seems nice!"

Bela flicked her eyes to her mom and could practically see her grinding her teeth, "That's dad's girlfriend."

Max's smile faded immediately, "Oh. Never mind, she's a _putz_. And mom is _so much_ prettier than she is."

Santana tries to hide her smirk, not used to being on _this_ side of Max's adoration. But still, she had a facade to maintain. "Max, the same rules apply to your Dad's girlfriend as Sebastian. So I _don't_ want to hear you calling her a putz—"

"To her face." Bela scoffs and Max giggles conspiratorially.

"—at _all_." Santana corrects.

Max nudges Bela and whispers in what he thinks is low enough to keep Santana from overhearing. "What's the girl form of a putz?"

"I _heard_ that!" Santana sighs as Charlie jogs back to them looking sheepish. "Are we having a guest for dinner?"

"No, uh—she had to go home." Charlie rubs the back of his neck and pushes a smile onto his face. "Room service?"

"Home or your hotel room?" The words come out before she can stop herself and he freezes and stares at her.

"Mom—" Bela says looking around and tugging on her arm. She was going to cause a scene.

"Home," Charlie responds, not even bothering to once again remind Santana that he was _single_.

"I didn't know you kept an apartment here in LA." Santana snarks, feeling slightly vindicated when Charlie's cheeks flush deeply.

"I don't. _Her_ home." He takes a deep breath and turns to the kids. "So, pizza? Movies? Scary ghost stories that will give me nightmares?" He glances at Santana for a moment, Santana being furious at him generally gave him nightmares. She studied him for a moment longer before deciding that she needed to check in.

Max nods and moves over to tug at his dad's arm and motions for him to bend over so he can whisper something in his ear. He smiles when his dad crouches down beside him. "Mom's prettier." He informs his dad narrowing his eyes at him.

Charlie blinks and looks at Santana for a moment before turning his attention back to his son. "I know."

"I don't like your new girlfriend," Max adds after a moment.

"Not my girlfriend," Charlie promises him, leaning in so he can whisper into Max's ear. "She's just a crazy person who followed me home and I can't seem to get rid of her."

Max paused for a moment and looked at his dad squinting at him carefully as if looking for a lie on his face. "But Bela said—"

"Max, she's not my girlfriend I promise."

It seems to be enough for Max who nods pleased with this information before grinning. "So we can get anything we want for room service?"

"As long as it's okay with your mom," Charlie informs him as he stands back up and messes up his hair.


	31. Chapter 31

Santana made a mental note to go see a dentist. Despite the fact that Max and Bela both seemed to be getting into this whole All-star weekend and had practically cheered themselves hoarse, even getting CJ into it who seemed to like screaming and kicking as everyone else went wild, she was miserable and had been busy grinding her teeth. Through the D-league all-star game, through the stupid skills challenge, the three-point challenge and the damn dunk competition she had caught Dani fucking Harper staring at her, practically ignoring everything that was going on in front of her. Every time their eyes met Dani would flash her a smile which creeped her out to no end.

She hadn't been able to rip into Charlie for not giving her the head's up that he was going to flaunt his girlfriend in front of her. Charlie had been deft making sure to keep the kids thoroughly entertained in a hotel even one with an excellent view and a game room inside the suite. It was if he knew she was pissed and was simply avoiding the conflict. But this was unacceptable, she couldn't read Dani well enough to put her down effectively. Not while Dani was one of Bela's favorite artists and she was dating her ex-husband. It put her in a bind that she wasn't quite sure how to fix.

"He got _robbed_!" Max huffed tugging on his mom's arm "You saw it! You saw how much better dad's dunk was then _Rutherford_ ' _s_." Max spits the last name of his father's greatest enemy. The worst part about this was that the West was winning already and it wasn't fair.

Santana sighed turning her attention from Dani Harper and focusing on Max. She didn't know how to tell him that coming in second when Charlie had won the dunk competition five times in a row was hardly the end of the world that Max was making it out to be. "Well, Matt did jump over a mascot. It was impressive and it got people out of their seats, but yeah I do think that he should have gotten all 10's. I didn't think he could go from the charity stripe like that."

"Yeah, but dad doesn't need any _props_!" Max insists. His dad was _the best_ and it had to be against the rules to cheat like Rutherford did.

"True, but I think dad just cares that you _thought_ he was the best," Bela points out and Max huffs. "I'm pretty sure dad could have done the same dunk that Rutherford did."

" _Obviously_!" Max puffed out his cheeks and flopped back in his seat. "I can't believe the East lost the dunk contest, the skills challenge and the three-point competition. Dad should have entered all of them. He's like the—" Max paused and tilted his head. His dad's average for three points was only 41% he was _just_ on the best ten list and his position wasn't secure. "He would have won."

Santana shifted CJ so she was more comfortable, her son was asleep despite the roar of the crowd completely uninterested in what was going on around him. She understood the feeling. She looked across the court for a moment and sighed in relief. At least Dani was gone. "Come on, let's go find your and make him feel better about his loss."

"Second place is hardly a loss," Bela points out. "He got a standing ovation."

"He lost to _Matt Rutherford_." Max reiterates. " _Everyone_ jumps over a mascot! It wasn't that interesting! Grandpa Russ says that getting second place is _worse_ than getting a participation award. Second place just makes you the first loser."

Santana froze and turned to her son, "Grandpa Russ?" Where the hell was Max getting 'pearls of wisdom' from that jackass. "Maxie, where have you been talking to your grandpa Russ?"

"Uh—" Max looks over at Bela for help. He wasn't supposed to tell his parents about that. His mom seems mad too, so that only makes him more uncertain.

Bela rolls her eyes. Max couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it.

" _Max_."

"He came over for dinner at Grandma Judy's last time." Max admits, the truth spilling out of him quickly. He shrugs, not really sure what the big deal was. Grandpa Russ was _awesome_ he almost knew as much about his Dad's stats as Max did.

Santana made a mental note to talk to Charlie about _that_ new revelation. She was fairly certain that Charlie would be as blindsided as she was. From everything he had said, he had cut Russell out of his life. Figures that it would be _another_ thing that he would conveniently forget to tell her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Max shrugged and looked at Bela for a bit of help and Bela sighed. "It's grandpa Russ, we didn't think it was a big deal. We haven't seen him in _forever_." Bela pointed out. As far as she was concerned it was _no_ big deal. She wasn't a huge fan of him, and he only seemed to like Max. He had spent most of the night ignoring her existence and whenever he did look at her, he would glower at her in a way that made her uncomfortable. It was why she had decided to spend the entire night sticking close to her grandma and helping her with CJ.

Santana bit her lip, this wasn't the place to tell the kids that they weren't allowed to have contact with their grandfather, and it wasn't a decision that she could unilaterally make. As much as she despised the fact, Russell was Charlie's father and it was _his_ decision. Though if what he said was true, if he had truly cut Russell from his life then hopefully she could convince him to say something or do something about this situation. She didn't want her son to be repeating the bullshit that Russell spewed. "I still need you to tell me when things like that happen, okay?" She said instead.

"Things like what happen?" A deep voice from behind her makes all the kids turn around excitedly.

"Dad!" Max and Bela chime in unison.

Max is up and out of his seat faster than Santana can think to stop him, "I can't believe you lost to _Rutherford_. You were way better than he was."

Charlie smirks. "Glad you think so." As soon as he saw Rutherford's dunk, he knew he was going to be in second place. Five years ago he might have been competitive enough and stupid enough to risk the groin injury but now he was mostly content with his place in the contest. Though the last time he had a groin injury—a slow smile crosses his face as he flicks his eyes to Santana.

Santana rolled her eyes. She knew that smile, he was thinking perverted things. "Stop it." Santana informs him shifting CJ so Charlie could pick him up. He does with ease and CJ wakes up with a jolt, his face twisting immediately as he is about to cry before realizing that it's Charlie who is holding him. Santana bites her lip as CJ smacks Charlie in the face.

" _No!_ " He laughs at this like it's his own funny joke.

"Look CJ, I know you can say dada. Say dada—come on!"

"No!" CJ hugged him wrapping his arms around his neck. "No!"

"Wow, it looks like someone learned his favorite word from his dad." Dani teased, stepping around Charlie to get closer to Santana. In the confined space, it looked more like she was trying to step between them, but she gave that little thought.

"Dani—" Charlie rubbed his hand over his light stubble, an action that CJ instantly repeated with fascination. "I thought I told you—"

"To meet you after the dunk contest?" Dani finishes for him with a bright grin. "Well it's after the contest so here I am."

"No, pretty sure I told you to go home." Charlie responds. Charlie blows on CJ's hands as his son continues to touch his face.

"But—we _talked_ about this!" Dani insists poking him in the side. "Come on!"

Charlie looks over at his family who is staring at Dani like she's crazy. It's a fact he's known for months and Santana looks close to blowing up at him once again. "Fine you know what, ask her yourself. I want no part of this right CJ?"

"No! No!"

"That's my—" CJ smacks him in his mouth and he sighs shaking his head. "Hello to you too."

"Hungry!" CJ informs him frowning at him.

"Okay—sheesh you're worse than Max." Charlie grumbled as CJ continued to play with his beard.

" _Hey_!" Max frowns at his dad.

"Kidding, I love all of you equally," Charlie responds holding his free hand up.

Bela sits up a little straighter at the thought that Dani _actually_ wanted to talk to them. "What did you want to ask?" She grins brightly. Maybe Dani wanted to play her next song, or do something really cool with them.

Dani blushes a little and Santana narrows her eyes reflexively. "I was thinking—Santana—maybe we could go grab dinner tonight. You know, get to know each other leave Charles here to do the babysitting. I really think that I should get to know you."

Santana smiles politely. She _knows_ what Dani's game is. She's trying to get under Santana's skin. It's exactly what she would do if she were in Dani's position. But she doesn't _want_ to spend a second more than she has to with Charlie's new girlfriend. "Uh—"

Charlie glances at his ex-wife for a moment as he continued to make popping noises with his mouth, which made CJ laugh. "Well, I think that's a no."

" _No!_ " CJ laughs.

"Dada? Can you say dada?"

"No!"

"See even CJ agrees with me." Charlie grins as he continues to make popping noises.

Santana shoots him a warning look before smiling as broadly as she can. "I think that would be a wonderful idea. Maybe Charlie could watch the kids?" She raises her brow at her ex-husband almost daring him not to save her from what was sure to be a painfully awkward evening.

But Charlie was too busy prying CJ's fingers from his beard to notice. Dani smacks him on the arm to try to get his attention, " _Charlie_." She hisses. This is her _chance_ and she's not going to let Charlie blow this for her.

"I think it's a terrible idea. But if you want I can watch the kids. Right little man?"

"I'm your little man!"

"No you're my piranha," Charlie flicks his eyes to Max. He reaches over and musses up his hair. "I don't want pizza tonight so how about—"

" _Za!_ " CJ shouted.

Santana rolled her eyes, "If you say the word that's all he's going to want to eat. That's why we don't say the word. We spell it out."

Bela looked between Dani and her mother for a moment. "Maybe I should tag along with mom—"

"No," Santana said immediately. "I need you to watch your dad and make sure he doesn't end up putting the three of them in a food coma again."

Bela makes a face and leans in and whispers in her mom's ear. "Don't embarrass me, _please_."

Santana rolls her eyes and looks at Dani. "I'll need to go back to the hotel, but maybe meet me there around eight?" She somewhat expects Dani to back down.

But Dani's bright grin is infuriating. "Perfect."

~O~

Santana was not going to let Dani get the upper hand on her, not if her life depended on it. She waited impatiently for the elevator to reach the main floor a full ten minutes before eight o'clock. Frowning when the door opens and Dani is there chatting amicably with a hotel worker. She tries not to scowl at being one-upped.

"Santana! There you are!" Dani excuses herself from her adoring fan and trots up beside her. "You're early."

"So are you." Santana notes.

Dani flashes her a grin. "My mom always told me it was good manners to show up early when you were excited about the company."

Santana gritted her teeth. So this is how it's going to be? Faux platitudes and backhanded compliments? Well two could play at this game. She hadn't battled with Quinn all during high school to claim the title of HBIC for nothing. But she had learned a thing or two about manipulation and game play in her time as a reality star and hugged Dani quickly. "Great! Let's get going."

Dani grinned, this date was off to a fantastic start and Charlie thought that this was going to be some _epic_ disaster. Santana wasn't as terrifying as he made her out to be. "So I think that _most_ of the stories that Charlie has told me about you aren't true." Dani said trying to make conversation as they headed to her car which was was waiting out front. Her driver waiting.

Santana smiled cheerfully this would be so much easier than she thought. "I'm sorry then we're at a disadvantage then. My _ex-_ husband has told me _virtually_ nothing about you."

"Well, you know how he is." Dani said with a shrug, some friend he turned out to be, he could have _at least_ talked her up a bit.

"I was married to him for nearly ten years and we've been dating since middle school, so _yes_ I do know how he is and how he gets." She smirks inwardly, she really was dangerously good at this manipulation game. She didn't even know _why_ she was attempting to get between Charlie and his girlfriend. Maybe she just wanted to hear Dani _admit_ that they were dating, so she could throw another one of Charlie's lies in his face. They'd been on this topic for _months_.

"Well, I hope that we can change that," Dani said. This couldn't be the person Charlie had joked dragged him to the altar. She seemed a bit unsure, but this was good. "I hope you like sushi? I know this sweet little place that makes some of the best sushi in LA. I love eating here."

Santana raised a brow, it had been two years since she had been to a decent sushi place. Probably longer, Charlie hated going to Sushi places with her, there wasn't enough food to eat, and it was sort of gross in his opinion to be eating raw fish. Her attempts to broaden her children's cultural pallet had been an epic failure on Max's part. "Sure, I could go for some sushi," she shrugs before pausing. It wasn't what she would have done, but then again sushi was one of those foods that could be done terribly could lead to disastrous results. There wouldn't be any moment where she couldn't be on her guard around Dani.

The infuriating thing was, no matter how hard she tried, Dani continuously seemed to have the upper hand. She was weirdly like Charlie, in a way. With that same self-deprecating dorky humor that used to make Santana laugh. For nearly an hour they chat amicably and no matter how hard Santana tries to get under Dani's skin, Dani smirks and continues to press forward. As if this isn't some _game_ and they aren't going to wake up tomorrow under headlines about Santana welcoming Dani into their family.

Dinner had been nice, _too_ nice and Santana was almost relieved when the waiter left to get the check. But all of the tension and awkwardness that Santana has been navigating through doesn't even seem to faze Dani who continues her admittedly interesting tale. "—So there I am, on-stage in front of probably ten thousand people, with my pants ripped up the ass."

Santana snorts at the image. "I bet your manager loved that."

"Well, it could have been worse." Dani admits, resting her head on her hand as she studied Santana carefully.

Santana bristles at Dani's sympathetic tone and has finally had enough, "Alright, look. You win. What the fuck is your deal?"

"My deal?" Dani _smirks_ and it only serves to make Santana more furious.

"Yes. You invite me here, to what? Remind me that _you're_ Charlie's girlfriend. I get it. He's my ex-husband and even though we're divorced I'm _still_ going to be a part of his life." Santana sits back triumphantly.

Dani glances around the restaurant, grateful that they have a secluded private room. "I'm not Charlie's girlfriend." She knows that this is risky, but this night has been _awesome_. Anyone with two eyes can see that Santana and Charlie are still obsessed with each other, but Santana is like her top celebrity crush and she would never forgive herself if she let this chance slip by.

"Of course he's not." Santana rolls her eyes.

"He's not. He's not my type."

"You mean famous, athletic, tall, handsome—" Santana is cut off when Dani leans across the table and presses her soft plump lips against Santana's own. She's stunned when the brief kiss ends and Dani falls back into her seat grinning wildly.

"Yeah, he's not my type." Dani shot Santana a pointed look.

"Oh." Santana blinked before immediately grabbing her purse. She had thought that she was good with fucking with people's minds but this was taking it to a whole new level of mind fuck and she couldn't hope to compete with. "I—gotta go," she mumbles quickly grabbing her purse and fleeing.

~O~

Charlie watched his son carefully, "Okay CJ. We've done this a million times before. Max has the brand new diaper ready to go and Bela has the baby powder. This is a team effort. So we're _here_ trying to make sure you're comfortable so don't—pee on us."

Bela snorted stepping behind her father carefully, "If you're going to do it CJ, don't get any on me."

"Yeah! Dad's right here."

"What the hell? We're supposed to be a team!" Charlie looks at his kids and frowns at them. Traitors, the whole lot of them. CJ has a huge grin on his face that makes him nervous but he quickly pulls on the tape of the diaper holding his breath, as the smell hits and he gags. "No more p-i-z-z-a for you," he informs CJ who laughs kicking his legs.

"It smells so bad," Max groans wondering how they got roped into this.

"Get the wipes!" Charlie orders grabbing as many as he can so he can start cleaning CJ up. "We're going to potty train you. That's what we're going to do. You're far too old to have your mom and I cleaning you up."

"He's not even three yet dad," Bela points out.

"Shush, if we start early he'll get used to it early. We'll save a fortune on diapers and all the wipes and baby powder." Charlie tossed the used wipes into the plastic bag and took the baby powder from Bela, using a generous amount of baby powder before finishing putting on his new diaper. "Max get his jammies, the one with the basketballs on it. He looks adorable in that."

"Mom didn't bring that one, she brought the Care Bear jammies," Max added. "It's Grumpy!"

"Fine Grumpy it is. Who's a grumpy boy? You are! Yes, you are!" Charlie said leaning down to blow a raspberry on CJ's stomach.

"Dad stop being weird," Bela grumbles.

"You're just jealous cause you're too old for me to do that to you," Charlie says as he begins to put CJ's clothes on. "And I'm not weird."

"Yeah Bela dad's not weird! He's _amazing_ , even though he lost!"

"I came in _second_!" Charlie argues finishing up and quickly tying the used diaper filled bag into the trash and kicking it away.

"Second is just the first loser."

Charlie turned to Max raising a brow. That sounded like his father. "What?"

"Second place is just the first loser! You said we should always strive to be the best!"

"Yes, you should but—" The door to the suite slams open causing all three of them to jump and turn to Santana who looked incensed. Charlie immediately picks up CJ keeping him to his chest. Protection. Santana would never kill him with CJ in his arms. He knew he should be ashamed for using his 2-year-old son as a shield.

" _Mommy_!" CJ shouted reaching for her, squirming in his dad's arms.

Santana flicked her eyes to her son for a moment before moving closer to him even as Charlie stumbled back. She takes CJ into her arms and nuzzles him. "Were you a good boy for daddy?"

CJ grins at her. "No!"

"Perfect, that's my little boy. I'm going to need to talk to 'No," for a moment okay?" Santana presses her lips against CJ's head, feeling her son cling to her. "Bela can you take him please?"

Bela glanced between her parents for a moment noting that her dad had tried to shuffle behind Max for a moment. It could only mean that the thing with Dani hadn't gone well. "Sure—come on Max, let's go watch a movie."

"But—" Max began, he knew the look on his mom's face and even though every bone in his body wanted to dive for cover he wanted to stay and see what the fight was about.

"Max," Bela sighs, tugging on his arm. "I'll even let you pick the movie."

It seems to distract Max enough for a moment. "Transformers? The one with the dinosaurs?" He was really tired of watching _Disney_ movies because of CJ.

"Sure, let's just go." Bela shook her head as she took CJ from her mom. Her brother immediately kicked up a fuss. "Pizza."

CJ grins. "Hungry!"

"Of course you are, let's go get you your leftover pizza."

Santana waits until the kids are in the game room and the door is closed before motioning for her ex-husband to follow her as she makes her way to the master bedroom waiting for Charlie to enter before closing the door. She exhales slowly, trying to calm herself. She wanted to yell at him but the kids were _just_ in the other room. "Tell me, how exactly did you think this was going to work?" She snaps, trying to keep her voice low.

"With Dani?" He shrugs an infuriating smirk on his lips. "I didn't expect you to go hang out with her—"

"Hang out? It was a _date_."

"So she told you." Charlie feels a flush of relief at not having to be the guard to Dani's secret.

"Did she think she could fool me into a _threesome_?"

Charlie frowns at the thought. "Gross. Dani's like my sister. One that I have repeatedly said I didn't want. Wait, you get taken out on a date and think this is some ploy by me to have a _threesome_?"

"Wouldn't be the first time you asked," Santana mutters under her breath.

"I asked once, while inebriated! And it wasn't _my fault_ you were the one making out with a girl in front of me. What man in his right mind would turn _that_ down?" Charlie crossed his arms over his chest. That had not been a good night for him. Or week, Quinn had spent days lecturing him about how disgusting he was. "Besides I don't know why you're taking this out on me. I'm pretty sure I told you that it was a crappy idea."

"But you _knew_ that she was going to play me—"

"I knew she had an enormous crush on you like some sort of kindergartener. But you're the one who agreed to it." A perverted kindergartener, but Dani was mostly harmless and if her striking out and failing made his life easier then so be it.

"You should have _told_ me."

"Yeah, because that went _so well_ when I told you about Quinn." He retorts. Another week of hell, as Quinn had ripped into him and Brittany had ganged up on him for blabbing to Santana before Quinn was ready. Apparently they were some sort of rivals. "She asked me not to tell anyone. I didn't tell anyone. Rachel already knew and told Quinn, but other than that—no one knew."

"You _kissed her_."

"I did, and she bluntly informed me that she'd much rather be kissing you." Charlie rolled his eyes. "Why are women so complicated?"

Santana stared at him and grabbed the nearest pillow to smack him with, "You let me think that you were dating her!"

Charlie shifted his body quickly, in a move he used on the court to break free from some of the best defenders in the league so he could get behind his ex-wife and wraps his arms around her. "No, I told you from day one that we weren't dating. You made this into some huge deal."

" _I_ made this into some huge deal? You _lied to me_."

"I told you, she asked me not to say anything and I—"

"Yeah, well _I_ asked you not to sleep around while we were married, but I guess it's only me that you don't have to keep promises to."

Charlie steps back as if he had been slapped. "I—haven't been with anyone but you in _years_. I screwed up before Max was born. I admit that, but the years after—the years after we were _perfect._ Sex wasn't what made our relationship Santana, I fucked up. I know I fucked up and I know you were humiliated. But—I grew up. I grew out of it. If I was still that person, if I was still that _man_ that did all those crappy things, I wouldn't be here right now. You wouldn't be here right now."

"I should go." Santana shakes her head, feeling tears burn at the back of her eyes. This is ridiculous. They're divorced for fuck's sake.

He reaches out and grabs her hand to stop her. "And how the hell is all of this my fault? Every fucking time that something goes wrong, it's _my_ fault. But guess what? It wasn't my fault that you threw yourself into school to get a degree because you thought I'd _abandon_ you. It wasn't my secret that caused distance between us. No that was _you_. _You_ thinking that since Bela might not be mine that I'd just—"

"And wouldn't you?" Santana spat. "You _cheated_. Not once, and not even by accident. So get the hell off your high horse and come join us mortals here on earth. _You_ gave up on us, not me. And _that_ is your fault."

"I gave up on us? I want nothing more than to come home and stop living like some bachelor until my kids are around! You were the one that sought out the divorce not me. I was willing to fight—"

"You couldn't even fire your father, and you're standing there saying that you were willing to fight? I asked one thing of you! I just wanted one thing and you couldn't even do that." Santana took a deep breath when she heard the sound of CJ crying. She swallows, the kids had probably heard. "I'm going to go take care of CJ—just say goodnight to Bela and Max and leave. It's past their bedtimes anyway."

Charlie gritted his teeth for a moment before nodding. The kids were a priority and they had clearly overheard parts of their conversation as it got heated. "I'll see you and the kids after the All-Star Game."

"Right." Santana said dismissively and then they could go back to _ignoring_ one another. That was what was for the best.


	32. Chapter 32

Charlie rubbed his face tiredly. He hadn't slept at all last night and felt like shit. He was due to start getting ready for tonight's game any minute but his heart just wasn't in it. Santana was avoiding him and although he knew the kids were watching, he hadn't had time to talk to them all day. He was so lost in his own head that he had long ago tuned out whatever Sue was trying to say.

Sue narrowed her eyes in annoyance. Her star player wasn't listening, that much was clear. But she had important things to discuss. After a minute without him even noticing she had stopped talking, she nudged his calf with her shoe. "Pay attention Fabray, I don't have all day."

"Sorry. You were talking about—" He scratched his face trying to remember, "Endorsement deals?"

"No. For the second and _last_ time, I've scheduled a few late-night talk shows. But in order for that to _matter_ you need to play your heart out tonight."

Charlie shrugs. "It's an all-star game, it doesn't even really count." It didn't really. It was more a publicity stunt than anything and he kind of wished he could sit this year out.

"Every game counts when we're trying to make you a brand." Sue corrects. Whatever, if he's not going to pay attention then it isn't worth her time to review this with him right now. She'll probably just make some decisions and then tell him that they discussed it if he gets all pissy. She reaches back into her pocket and pulls out a sealed envelope. "Before I forget, here's your results."

Charlie frowns as he takes the yellow envelope. "What does it say?"

"How should I know?" She lies. She'd ordered her own copy when she oversaw the paternity test, just to keep herself in the loop. In today's world, nothing was a hundred percent secure and though she did her best, she wasn't about to let another scandal broadside the Fabray camp. Better to be informed, she always told herself. "I have much more important things to care about than _your_ personal life."

"Gee thanks." Charlie chuckles, rolling his eyes. He shakes his head and nods when someone taps him on the shoulder and gestures to the locker room. He flips over the envelope holding it to the light to see if he could see-through it. He couldn't and even though he knows that he should wait for his daughter, he needs to know. He tears open the envelope, his hands shaking as he pulls out the document.

He had already braced himself for the inevitable. That she wasn't his, he had done all the mental preparation that he could muster. At least if he knew for certain he could break it to Bela. "A bunch of fucking numbers and stuff that I don't understand," he mutters flipping the page hoping that the results were easier to understand. "The alleged father is not excluded as the biological father of the tested child. Based on the testing results obtained from analyses of the DNA loci listed, the probability of paternity is 99.999999%. The probability of paternity is calculated by comparing to an untested, unrelated, random individual of the Caucasian population—" Charlie stopped reading and stared at the paper. "The probability of paternity is 99.999999%."

He blinks, staring at the paper as if it could change at any moment. _The probability of paternity is 99.999999%_. He used to stay up late and watch Jerry Springer with Santana and part of him expected Maury Povich or good ole' Jerry to pop out with dramatic music and a big banner that read _'YOU ARE THE FATHER'._

He was Bela's _father_.

He grins unable to stop himself and pats his dick proudly, he knew his swimmers were fighters. He's _the_ father. He snaps a selfie with the paperwork, pointing to the most important part. He checks the picture to make sure the words are legible, and that they haven't magically changed in the last thirty seconds and texts it to his daughter. He waits a grand total of one second before adding: **_WHO'S YOUR DADDY? XD_**

"Charlie—"

Charlie looks up as someone motions for him to start getting changed. He looks a bit crazed in his fancy suit with a duffel bag on his shoulder and a huge massive grin on his face. "Give me a minute." He waits for Bela to respond hoping that she has her phone on her. Who was he kidding she was a twelve-year-old girl, of course she had her phone on her.

 ** _Don't be weird about it_**

Charlie waits for a moment, the grin still on his face.

 ** _Dad._**

If it's possible his face was about to split open from the fact that he was smiling to hard. "Right. Coming. Just—let me text my daughter and I'll be right there." **_Daddy_** **** ** _loves you Bela! Tonight's for you!_**

Charlie is about to put his phone in his pocket when it buzzes in his hand and he looks at it.

 ** _And you made it weird. Thanks dad!_**

~O~

Santana glances over at her daughter skeptically. Bela was practically beaming and something was going on. She was cheering for Charlie nearly as loud as Max was.

"Did you _see_ that dunk?" Bela asks her mom, nearly bouncing with excitement.

"He's at a _career_ high." Max agrees. It was one thing to make a dunk like that in the dunk contest, but in a _game?_ With all of the league's best? His dad was going down in _history_ as the greatest player that ever lived.

Santana was about to ask what the hell was going on, things had been tense this morning when Charlie ran by winking at the kids and she had to latch onto CJ who immediately wanted to go and play with his father. He had no idea what was going on, and she didn't either but the kids were loving this. Sure it was the All-Star game and no one _really_ played defense but Charlie had been on a tear. Feeding the ball and being a pain the side of the West. That was his tenth steal tonight and she already knew who the MVP was. "Yes, CJ I know your dad's showing off again and you want in on the fun."

"Daddy!" CJ repeated reaching for Charlie again.

Santana nearly dropped CJ, he had never once called Charlie dad and now he was practically whining to be in his father's arms. "Okay, what's going on with the two of you. You're both acting like Max."

Max beamed for a moment before frowning. "Hey!"

"I'm not saying as if it's a bad thing sweetie, I'm just saying they're both being weird." Santana points out, as the final buzzer sounds.

Charlie is immediately surrounded by various other players that clap him on the back as a congratulation on the game. He raises his arms in victory, and turns as best as he can to look at his kids. They were _his_ kids; his dick was fucking magic if it had given him three wonderful kids like that. He didn't want to deal with all the media attention right now, he wanted to go see his daughter and hug her tightly. Or do the opening for lion king with Bela. He was sure Santana would murder him for attempting to do that but he didn't care anymore. Bela was _his_.

~O~

Hours later Charlie is showered and ready to party with the rest of the guys. He had hugged his kids and gotten to celebrate a little with them before Santana took them back to the hotel. He hadn't known how to talk to her, but apparently they agreed on mutual indifference to one another. He slings his back over his shoulder and makes his way out of the locker room toward the players' exit.

"Good game, son." A hand claps him on the shoulder and Charlie swears under his breath.

"Who the fuck let _you_ in here?"

"This isn't Cleveland and you've been persona non-grata here after you bolted to Cleveland. You saw how everyone was _burning_ your jersey number? I'm not banned from this arena in fact I've managed to get myself some new talent."

"Good, go leech off them. I'm late for a party."

Russell narrowed his eyes. "I know you don't mean that." He keeps his tone light, if this were one of his daughters he might be able to throw his weight around a little more, but with his son he had to be more careful. "But I am sorry for letting my anger get the better of me the last time we spoke."

"Seriously?"

"I'm just trying to protect you, son, but it's time you knew." He blows out his breath in a dramatic show of fatherly concern. "Bela is not your biological daughter."

Charlie blows out a frustrated breath. Any other day, he might have put his father through a wall. Not today. Not when today was potentially one of his top ten days ever. "I have a paternity test in my bag that says otherwise."

"Can you really trust any test that Santana might have doctored?" Russell rolls his eyes. "I didn't raise you to be naive. I'm just looking out for your best interests, Charles. Do you know how much money you're wasting on some child that isn't even yours?"

Charlie narrowed his eyes at his father, "She didn't even know I was going to do the test."

"Didn't she? You'd be surprised at the lengths people like Santana will go to take your money."

People like Santana? What the hell did that mean? He shook his head. No wonder Santana had bristled any time he mentioned spending time with his father. Had he always been such a toxic asshole? "Santana is the _mother_ of all three of my children, and I _love her_. You don't get to talk about her like that not in front of me. Not anymore, I'm not going to just roll my eyes and pretend you're just the racist, sexist, homophobic jackass that only says that terrible shit during Thanksgiving because you've had too much to drink. You're always drinking so this shouldn't be a surprise." Charlie snapped shifting his body weight so he could stare down at his dad. "I mean I know why Quinn and Brittany hate you. Hell, I'm pretty sure I fucking hate you. So since you're here and I don't have to track you down, I'm telling you right now. Stay the _fuck_ away from my kids. I'm not going to let you poison them with your toxic bullshit. Cause if I think about you're probably the reason that Max was saying all those vile things earlier and I couldn't place my finger on it. Now I know, so if you're stupid enough to approach my kids again I will have you arrested."

Russell took a step back, "I'm trying to protect you."

"I've seen what your _protection_ costs. My family, my dignity, millions of dollars in sponsorships that I'm finally fixing. People are finally forgetting that I have a sex tape. So _fuck_ off and stay away from my family." Charlie shrugs his dad off his shoulder and heads down to the player's exit. He doesn't look back at his father, and he truly hopes that it will be the last time they _bumped_ into each other.

Russell watched his son storm off, gritting his teeth. Charlie would be nothing without him. He had been the one to go to bat for his son making sure that they gave him plenty of time to develop in his rookie year. Coming up with grueling exercises to make sure that he bulked up, and built the work ethic of some of the greatest players to ever play the game. He waits until he hears the door slam shut before he pulls out his phone. "TMZ, I've got another juicy story for you." His son could have chosen anyone else for his wife, but he had chosen that bitch who was an anchor and his son was far too stupid to realize it.


	33. Chapter 33

**AN: I need to make something clear before I get the whole Charlie's a misogynist because he's complaining about child support. He's not angry about the support that he has to pay for his kids, as they've both made clear the kids have their own trust and money goes there. He's angry that he has to pay spousal support it may be in the drop in the bucket but it adds up monthly, especially since he's also paying for most of everything else when it comes to the kids. Being angry that you have to pay, whether you're male or female while your ex-partner gets to see other people, is infuriating. Now, he's going to say some shit in a future chapter that I'm sure will get some of you angry and will have people up in arms.**

 **As for Charlie's never around and Santana does the lionshare of the work when it comes to raising the kids. This has been a part of their relationship since the very beginning. It's something that they agreed too, as in any job where one person has to travel a lot for work. If Charlie was being deployed constantly for war, or was a trucker. This was something that Santana and Charlie agreed to, doesn't mean that Charlie doesn't love his kids, maybe some of it's guilt for not being there. All of this will be addressed in the fic later. Divorces are messy and despite what you may think there are usually hurt feelings on both sides.**

* * *

Bela groans loudly when the lights flicker on. She'd pushed the snooze on her alarm twice already but it seemed as if her mom was hell-bent on torturing her.

Santana grins expectantly. They had gotten home late but Charlie and each of the kids had _promised_ that they would be fine to go to school today as long as they got to go to the game. She wasn't about to let them weasel out of it now. "Come on, Bela. Wake up."

"Coffee." Bela grumbles.

"You're twelve." Santana retorts dryly. "So no."

"Red Bull?"

"Again, twelve. That stuff is addictive. Your father used to drink three a day before Coach Bieste made him go cold turkey." Santana takes a step back so she can look at Max's room. " _Max_ don't think I've forgotten about you. Get out of bed and go shower."

"I don't want to." Bela could barely make out Max's muffled groan.

"Can't we just stay home?" Bela asks, cracking one eye open hopefully.

Santana laughed, "No. God no, next time your dad has a plan that may interrupt with school you need to tell him no. School is far more important than going to an All-Star game."

"But _mom_!"

"Tina's going to be here any minute. The only one of you that gets to be cranky and sleep in is CJ, so I'm going to start with breakfast. If I don't hear the water running soon enough and you two aren't down for breakfast completely dressed in fifteen minutes, you're both grounded until further notice."

"You're evil!" Max grumbles as he rolls out of bed. There's a thump as he hits the ground and he fumbles around a bit before getting up and dragging himself to the bathroom.

Santana cackled evilly. "I _told._ you we shouldn't go, but does anyone listen to me? _No."_ She huffs dramatically and as soon as she's sure that Bela is on her way out of bed, turns and stalks back to the kitchen. These kids were way too much like Charlie, but maybe some breakfast bacon could get them moving.

She hums softly to herself as she starts pulling the ingredients and appropriate pans for breakfast. The garage door opens and shuts quietly and Santana doesn't look up. "Hey Tina, want some artery clogging bacon?"

Tina stops. She had been expecting Santana to be a mess, a complete whirlwind of emotions. It was almost as if— "You haven't seen it, have you?"

"Seen what?" Santana sets her large skillet down on the stovetop and turns to Tina curiously. "Something about the all-star game?"

"Uh—no." Tina bites her lip. She was guilty of reading the tabloids every once and again but one of her friends had sent her the video that was on the TMZ website and she knew that Santana was going to lose it. "I think—yeah I'm pretty sure you should just watch." Tina pulls out her phone and goes to her history before pushing the phone to Santana. "Just—hit play."

Santana frowned and took Tina's phone, if this was about that horrid date that she had with Dani she was going to _kill_ her ex-husband. "Look, if someone took a picture of Dani kissing me—Max?"

"Wait—what? Dani Harper, Charlie's girlfriend _kissed you_?" Tina asked her jaw dropping. Santana's life was so incredibly fascinating and she thought that what she witnessed on reality television was just fake drama. But working with Santana— she was beginning to question everything that she believed in.

But Santana completely ignored the question, focused instead on the video that was clearly set in her former mother-in-law's living room. Her son flopped on Judy's comfortable couch and scowled at the person holding the camera. _'She's not even my real sister.'_

If there was any doubt who was behind this fiasco, it was squelched instantly by Russell's voice asking smugly with faux concern. _'What do you mean, Max?'_

 _'_ _Bela. She's not my dad's kid.'_

It breaks her heart and even though the video looks to be four minutes long she hits pause. She wants to know how he could do this to his own grandson. Max was seven, just seven years old. He didn't know any better and to be used as some pawn in his vendetta against her made her nauseous. Santana feels the lump in her throat. It was going to be another media frenzy and this time it wasn't going to be how Charlie was possibly a rapist but how she was some gold-digging whore again. And she knew Russell. A paternity test would reveal her secret and then everyone would know. "Tina—you need to go tell the kids that they're staying home today. I need you to take Bela's phone for now, and her computer and keep her away from TMZ or any other news site or social media."

"Right, of course." Tina nods, biting her tongue. She wants to ask if it's true but judging from Santana's reaction and the look of horror tinged with guilt on her face, that would be a stupid question. "Anything else?"

"Can you call my parents and ask them to come over as soon as they can to help? I need to go see—my ex-husband. We need to figure out what to do to shut this down. That video is going to be on the internet forever and I'm not sure what we can do about it. Max can't see this for now till we figure out what our next step is." The video only seems a few weeks old, she remembered him wearing that shirt to Judy's.

"I mean; can they even post that?" Tina wonders aloud. "Like Max is just a kid. I would think you'd need parental consent or _something_ —"

Santana blows out a breath, "I just don't know."

~O~

He has been in his apartment for a grand total of ten minutes and has already discarded is shoes and pants by the door. He's _exhausted_ and fairly glad that he texted Coach Beiste and got out of practice today. He had spent the entire flight nursing his hangover and though he felt much more like a human being, he kind of hoped to lounge in his apartment and avoid human contact for the rest of the day. He shuffles over to his fridge grabbing a Gatorade and chugging down half of it messily not caring if some of the red liquid splashes on his bare chest.

His door crashes open and it catches him off guard making him spill a good portion of the rest of the Gatorade as Sue blazes toward him. "I don't care if you're in a secret meeting with the president of the United States. You _never_ turn off your phone again, am I clear?" She crinkles her nose, of all the times for her star to be drunk, this was not one of them.

"Oh, my phone's off? I guess that means I don't want to be disturbed." Charlie responded flatly, looking around for a towel to dry up the drink before shaking his head. "Wait. Sue, what are you doing here? It's my day off—how did you even get in?" He narrows his eyes. "I haven't even given anyone the key!"

Sue ignored his outrage, "I'm here because the _shit_ has hit the fan and is being spread all over the room. Sponsors and endorsements have been calling me all day because of yet _another_ scandal that you're a part of."

Charlie stares for a moment thinking back, he hadn't done anything particularly egregious last night. Sure there had been that stripper, but he hadn't slept with her. He had gotten a lap dance though, paid for by Matt Rutherford of all people. But as far as he was concerned he hadn't done _anything_ wrong with her. "I got _rid_ of all my other sex tapes so it's not that," he mused. "What I do?"

"Not you," Santana frowns as she steps into his apartment, she had been surprised to find it wide open like that and had been worried for a second. She flicks her eyes to the strange older woman in a fur-lined track suit and shakes her head before turning back to Charlie. She wasn't going to ask. "Max."

"Max? He's seven. What he do? Murder someone?" Charlie looks between both women for a second when they don't laugh. "Oh god did Max kill someone? I _knew it_ —"

Santana chooses to ignore Charlie's rantings for a moment as she fishes out her phone and plays the video turning up the volume so Charlie can hear Max's voice.

' _She's not even my real sister_.'

Charlie clenches the bottle in his hand so tightly that any remaining gatorade spills out and covers his hand before dripping on the floor. "Russell?"

Sue nods, uncharacteristically quiet as Charlie tries to process that.

Santana pauses the video, knowing that Charlie doesn't need to hear any more of that. "What are we going to—"

"I'm going to _murder him_."

"First, don't ever _say_ you're going to murder someone ahead of time, that's a rookie mistake. At the very least, make sure it's an 'accident' and the first words out of your mouth should be 'I thought he was going to kill me'." She advised reflexively. Even if it had been years since her law school days, she would never forget that valuable advice.

"No one is killing anyone." Santana assured. As much as she would revel in the satisfaction of destroying her former father-in-law, this wasn't the time for revenge fantasies. They could deal with Russell later. "The real question is what do we do?"

"We talk to Max?"

"It's not going to be good enough." Sue interjects. "At this point, I've filed a lawsuit against TMZ for publishing a video of a minor without his parents' consent. We're going to argue everything under the sun, but the story is already out there." She blows out a breath and looks at Charlie's agent. "Can we have a minute alone?"

Sue glances between Santana and Charlie in a rare flash of human-like empathy that vanishes almost as quickly as it came, "One minute. Then we need a game plan on how to handle everything."

"Can we file for like I dunno—libel or something?" Charlie shakes his head and still tries to wrap his mind around _another_ scandal. At least this one wasn't entirely his fault. "What do you think she means by 'everything under the sun'?"

"Intrusion into seclusion, false light, standard privacy claims against both TMZ and Russell. We _could_ sue for libel and defamation, but only if—" Santana takes a deep breath, "—it's false."

"It _is_ false."

"Charlie—" Santana sighs there was no way that she could keep hiding it from him. She would have to tell him before they made a move, "She might not be yours."

"Bela is my daughter—"

"She's not." Santana interrupts bluntly. She hates that she has to lay this out but she's _not_ going to let another surprise revelation destroy her family. "I had her tested months ago—"

"No—"

"Brittany stole your toothbrush. I know, I went behind your back and you can hate me all you want but I had to know. I got Bela a replacement and Quinn sent it to a lab under a different name. I have the only copy of the papers, but she's _not_ yours." Santana blurts the information out as rapidly as she can.

"My toothbrush?" Charlie repeats tilting his head.

"Yeah the one in your gym bag, we figured since it's you—that you'd just think that you forgot it someplace. This—it was before you knew that there was a question about her paternity. I should have said something, anything—but I didn't know how to—"

"I don't keep my toothbrush in my duffel bag anymore. I haven't in about a year. It got into my shoes one time and it grossed me out. I just use the one that they provide at hotels, and throw it out once I'm done. And if I'm at the Quicken Loan's Arena, I have a pack of toothbrushes in my locker. So I have no idea whose toothbrush you tested but it wasn't mine." Charlie thinks for a moment trying to remember anything strange. "Mike lost his toothbrush a few months ago had to borrow one of mine."

"You—what?" Santana stared at him, dumbfounded.

"I don't keep my toothbrush in my duffel bag anymore." He repeated, smirking at little. Normally he was the one struggling to catch up.

"I—"

"Your first mistake was letting _Brittany_ help you. She probably got distracted by Mike, who was probably in a towel or something." Charlie moves to his duffel bag, "I figure Bela would have mentioned it to you by now, guess not." Charlie pulls out the envelope and slides it across his island to Santana. "My dick works by the way. You should know, I gave you two other kids. But so we're clear Bela is the fruit of my loins as they say in the bible or somewhere. I was going to get it framed."

"Fruit of your loins? God that sounds disgusting." Santana crinkled her nose and opened the envelope and read the report. He seemed so sure, so positive that she was wrong. She _hoped_ that she was wrong, that Brittany really had screwed up. "And this is accurate?"

"No, I'm carrying around a fake paternity test in my duffel bag for shits and giggles."

"You carried around my used pregnancy test for a _week_ so forgive me if I have no idea what you're willing to cart around with you."

"I did nothing of the sort. I carried around a picture of the pregnancy test, there's a difference. You didn't pee on that." Charlie mutters the last bit under his breath.

Santana rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the test results. She had so many questions, like when he had this done. Why hadn't he informed her? What would Bela think if she found out? "The alleged father is not excluded as the biological father of the tested child. Based on the testing results obtained from analyses of the DNA loci listed, the probability of paternity is 99.999999%." She steps back until she feels the countertop there behind her to hold her up. Years of agonizing about this, planning on how to deal with the fallout and months of being _certain_ that this wasn't possible had weighed on her like a ton of bricks. She says the first thing she can think of, "What the hell is a loci?"

"The fuck if I know." Charlie snorts.

"You're her _father_."

"I know; my dick is magical." Charlie shrugged his shoulders. "She's _our_ daughter. Who cares if she looks exactly like you. It didn't even matter what the test said she's been my daughter since she was born. So this whole thing is waste of everyone's time."

She feels lighter than she has in _years_ and feels tears of relief prick at the corner of her eyes.

Charlie scratches his head somewhat at a loss as to what he was supposed to do. His instincts wanted to pull Santana into a supportive hug. But they weren't together like that anymore. All of the familiarity born from years together now just made it awkward. "Right—so uh are we going to sue them for libel and emotional distress?"

Sue watched the two of them for a moment, "Already filed. But the question is, how do you want to handle it? We could release the paternity test to the media, make it seem like—"

"No," Charlie interrupts. "That isn't an option, I'm not going to have anyone thinking that I ever questioned whether Bela is my daughter. This is a private family matter, and my kids shouldn't even _be_ a topic of discussion. I'm famous. Santana's famous, our kids are kids. They shouldn't be _punished_ because of us. So can't we just—"

"Wait until we have to bring it up in court?" Santana finishes for him. "It's going to come out regardless."

"It might not come to that, it might be best to simply settle for enough that will _hurt_ TMZ, but certainly this can be handled quietly. It probably won't affect your current deals, but controversy makes the big companies skittish about getting behind you. After _many_ cases of them getting burned especially after Lance Armstrong and various other athletes, it makes sense for them to take the wait and see approach."

Charlie frowned, "No. This is a _non_ -issue. Bela is my _daughter_ ; it doesn't matter if she was biologically mine or not. What they're going to start penalizing players for _adopting_ now? Or saying to a family that they aren't a family because the dad might not be the _biological_ father. Not every guy has a magical penis like I do, sometimes it just doesn't work and they need to look to IVF. You telling me that they don't love their kids as if they were their own?" He exhales and narrows his eyes. "Thank you for informing that there was an issue but don't tell me that you can't fix the issue."

Sue narrowed her eyes for a moment, "You're right, the companies that want to sign with you, they still want to become an ambassador for their products. But you're going to need to start taking it more seriously."

"We're going to the playoffs, I'll deal with that when playoffs start," Charlie shrugged.

Sue rolled her eyes and turned to Santana, "It's _not_ my place to tell you this but you need to get ahead of this. In this situation Charlie is going to play as the victim. The media attention that you and your family received during your divorce will be _nothing_ compared to this. I suggest you hire the best PR firm money could buy, and you get yourself an agent if you don't already have one."

"I don't need—"

"You do." Sue insists, handing Santana a card. She didn't have time to represent former reality stars, but damages to Santana's reputation could indirectly affect Charlie. That's what she tells herself, at least, before handing Santana over to the _second_ best in the business. "He's not going to suffer a mass exodus of sponsors like last time, you on the other hand are."

Charlie nods, "Alright, that's one crises handled. Let's go talk to the kids. I'll just—" Charlie reaches for his keys.

Sue narrows her eyes and looks at Santana. "You're driving him, or call his driver. I don't care which because if there's one thing that I can't help him with it's a DUI. It's bad for business and he smells like an alcoholic that's just gone a three-day bender. I need to make some calls. Do _try_ not to fuck things up."

The door slams shut and Charlie sighs. "Let me put on a shirt and we can go—"

"Sue's right, you smell like you've completely pickled your liver. Go take a shower. Maybe shave if you still own a razor. Look like a normal human being instead of drunky Sasquatch."

"Okay, you may hate the beard but other women love it. CJ certainly likes touching it."

"CJ will touch human feces if I let him," Santana retorts. "He'd probably like playing with that too."

Charlie touched his face, it wasn't as if he was becoming a member of Duck Dynasty anytime soon. His beard was in the stage where it was simply prickly and he kept it perfectly trimmed and neat. "Whatever, I'm going to have a shower. Don't go through my stuff."

"I make no promises." Santana retorts. He really should know her better than that.

She waits only a minute before she crinkles her nose and begins to pick up after him. It was like he had forgotten all the training she had given him, and worse Max and Bela were copying him. Their rooms were a mess with clothes tossed on the ground. She pauses at the shirt that Charlie had ditched on the ground and frowns at the glitter on the front of the shirt. It smells like _cheap_ perfume, and she notices some red lipstick on the collar. He may not be seeing Dani, but he was clearly getting his rocks off somewhere with some cheap stripper.

"Santana, can you—" Charlie stops and raises a brow at his ex-wife holding up his shirt that had golden glitter on it. "Toss me a gatorade. Blue please." Charlie finishes.

Santana tossed the shirt at him wordlessly, gritting her teeth as she pulled open his fridge and grabbed the nearest sports drink and slid it across the island. It's not until Charlie opens the drink that she finally says something. "You have _two_ sons and a daughter. You get photographed nearly every day, and you want them to know—to think it's okay to go see _strippers_. To let Max and CJ know it's okay to look at women like _meat_ and to let our daughter think that—I can't believe you."

Charlie scowls it was a low blow on Santana's part dragging the kids into this. "Are you seriously trying to make me feel guilty for _that_? I was discreet. And I was there for a total of twenty minutes." One lap dance that had made him uncomfortable but he had sucked it up, and gotten progressively drunk throughout the night.

"You think I trust you to be _discreet_?" Santana scoffs. "Your father released a _sex_ tape."

"My father is an _asshole_." He corrects with a snap. "And I'm nothing like him."

" _Really_?"

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're barely a part of the kids' lives, and every time I think that we're on the same page as parents then there's one more disaster that you spring on us. So _forgive_ me if that sounds a little too like Russell for my own peace of mind."

"That _I_ spring on you? This is my fault? How the fuck is this my fault? You're the one that probably shipped the kids off to my mother's so you could get fucked by some _douchebag_."

Her hand strikes out before she can stop herself, ready to slap him with all her might but he grabs her wrist reflexively. "And where were you?" Santana snaps back, months of frustration bleeding into her fury. "Getting fawned over like Cleveland's pampered prince? Oh no, I remember. You were _gone_ as usual."

"Do you have any idea how much money I have to make to keep up with my alimony payments _and_ child support? To keep you and our children in the life you've grown accustomed to? A _lot_. It's not even that, I still need to pay for the kid's tuition, their uniforms, the _nanny_. Let's not forget I'm basically handing you ten thousand dollars a month and you get to _fuck_ other people, you get to deny me the right to see my kids and then blame me for what? I was working." All that without the government taking half of what he earned.

"You think I'm just the greedy bitch trying to bleed you dry? Fuck you, Charlie." She spits, pushing him away forcefully. "Every _penny_ of that money has gone into a trust for the kids that I try not to touch unless I absolutely have to. Every goddamn penny. I had to be sure that you wouldn't decide to pull a Russell and disown any of those kids."

Charlie's jaw twitched angrily, "You want to say I'm like my father because I had a fucking affair. _Fine_. Go ahead, but don't you fucking dare say that I haven't done my best to do right by my kids. They already _have_ a trust. _Fuck_ no wonder our marriage failed. You always believed that I'd be my father in the end. That I'm just _my father's son_."

"What else was I supposed to think? When you brought him over for dinner just so that I could try to be nice to someone who spewed awful shit to my face? And it's not like I was wrong, the moment things weren't going your way, the moment I wasn't there worshipping your dick, you went and put it in another woman. Excuse me _multiple_ women."

"That's not fair." Charlie shook his head. "Not when we went our whole married life thinking that I was Bela's father."

"You _are_ Bela's father, you asshole."

"Yeah, we know that _now_. It doesn't change the fact that you spent our entire marriage thinking that Bela wasn't mine and doing everything in your power to protect yourself from _me._ You think that I didn't fight for our marriage?"

"You _didn't_. When it got tough you slipped your dick inside someone else."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You fought for our kids, hell you're still fighting for them. You're fighting for your damn career, all those fancy endorsements that you're getting. The millions upon millions of dollars that you're making. You're complaining about paying half a million dollars a year to your _family_ when you're the tenth highest paid athlete in America, I saw you in Forbes, and you're only making more money. But fighting for us? Please Charlie you never even tried."

"And you did? You _knew_ I had issues with my dad and you abandoned me to deal with him alone."

"Do you hear yourself? You're nearly thirty-three years old. Grow the fuck up."

Charlie gritted his teeth, "I'm so sick of people telling me to grow the fuck up when I don't know what the best course of action is. You know Quinn and Brittany said the same thing back when I was twenty and you wouldn't spare me five minutes to even ask how my day went."

"I was in _school_ —"

"Yes I _know_." Charlie threw his hands up. "Trust me I fucking know. You needed to go to school, you wanted to be the perfect mom and we both know that Bela wasn't an easy baby. I _was there_." Charlie exhales slowly. "I was there. I supported you going back to school, it made sense. One of us needed a degree in case I ended up being a bust. I supported you because I thought you were looking out for _us_ , that didn't mean that it was _easy_. So that meant I handled my shit as best as I could. Do you know how many times I wanted to quit in my rookie year? How many brutal practices I had to endure, the dietary restrictions, how much _physical_ pain I was in? How fucking terrified I was that I'd be a bust? But instead of sharing that with you I came home and sat down and helped you study and played with Bela and did most of the night shifts when I was home because you had some early class? Throw in the brutal practice schedule, coach yelling himself raw, people picking me apart in the media. My life was a fucking nightmare. I know I wasn't perfect—I know I was an ass sometimes, but don't you _dare_ say I didn't try. Because I did."

"So this is _my fault_? Because I didn't want to end up like your _mother_? Or like one of the many women who dated or are married to athletes? I didn't want to be a housewife and I worked on bettering myself—" Santana snapped at him, clenching her fists as she stared at him. She exhales sharply. "It's not my fault that you never told me _anything._ If you were _that_ miserable then you should have divorced me years ago, instead of looking for sex elsewhere. And now here you are, going to strip clubs and doing god knows what with as many women as possible. You put me at risk, I don't give a shit if you used a condom. You put me at risk. God I had to get myself _tested_ , and you're standing there blaming me for what? Getting a degree trying to make something of myself? Trying to prove to everyone and anyone that I don't _need_ you. It doesn't matter whatever I build, as long as you're _Charlie Fabray_ number _74_. No one is ever going to take me seriously. Everyone is always going to keep implying that everything I do is handed to me by you, or that you have some part in it. That I'm some gold-digging _slut_. I mean it's what your dad told you for years, and listen to yourself, you're standing there blaming the fact that I got an education for our _marital_ problems. You're using it as an _excuse_ to justify cheating."

"I'm not justifying anything. And I'm not blaming the education, I'm blaming the motivation behind it. You didn't give a rat's ass if I succeeded or failed because it wasn't about _us_. It was about you. You never thought Bela was mine to begin with. It's why you had an overload of classes for three and a half years because you thought that if I found out, that if I knew that I'd what? Divorce you? Kick you out? Disown Bela? Be my father?" When Santana doesn't say anything he frowns. "If you thought that I'd do that, any of it. Then why did you say _yes_ when I asked you to marry me?"

"Because I love you, you asshole!" She cringes as the words fall out of her mouth on their own accord.

Charlie falls back a step, shocked. "What?"

"I loved you." She repeats. "But I knew that just like fucking always, I loved you more than you could ever love me. You fucking _cheated_. Not once, not twice—"

Charlie shakes his head as Santana continues her rant. That was _not_ what she said. She said _love_ , present tense. _Bullshit_. How could she say that? That she loved him _more_. He had done _everything_ for her just to make her happy and she _lied_. He's about to disagree when his phone rings, he frowns as he reaches for it and picks it up, his eyes not travelling off Santana. "What?"

 _'_ _Charles Reagan Fabray that's no way to answer the phone when your mother is calling.'_

Charlie blinks, "Mom? If this is about how you let my father near my kids, then I'm going to have to call you back."

' _Charles—'_

"Bye mom," Charlie ends the call and puts his phone down.

"You cheated on me with ten different women. So whatever argument you're trying to think of, it doesn't change the fact that you are in a multitude of ways are exactly like your father. I suppose the only blessing in this entire mess is that you didn't get a girl pregnant, you didn't catch anything and bring it back to us and most importantly I don't have to deal with some tattooed freak. Now go take your damn shower and lets go parent our kids."

Charlie scowls at her and opens his mouth to say something. "You're not my wife anymore, stop going through my shit." He finally manages to get out before turning on his heel and heading to take a shower slamming the door behind him.


	34. Chapter 34

"Will you _stop that_?" Santana snapped at Charlie as he fiddled with his seat for the umpteenth time. It had been a very silent drive home _except_ for Charlie adjusting and readjusting his seat every five minutes. Charlie flicks his hazel eyes at her for a moment before going back to adjusting his seat. It's enough to make her grip the steering wheel tightly. " _Look_ , we've got three kids together and being less than civil to each other is beneath us. They need the both of us to be their parents so whatever is going on between us we can table it until we've figured out what we're going to do about this. I think Max—"

"I've already talked to Max about this."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Yes and now we're in this situation. He ran his mouth _after_ you talked to him about it so clearly that conversation wasn't _that_ great to begin with. I don't know why I assumed that you could handle it."

"I did handle it." Charlie insists. Max hadn't sounded _enraged_ as he had said those words. "The video has been edited, for all we know Max could be explaining to my father why he was in trouble. He doesn't know the type of man my father is."

Santana's lip twitched, "And you wonder why I never wanted the kids around him? You're the one that let him have dinner with the family, he's just 'Grandpa Russ' to them. This is going to _crush_ Max. He trusted an adult that betrayed him. Let's not _forget_ Bela is a victim in this, she's going to know her grandfather _hates_ her. That he's targeting her—"

"I controlled the amount of contact that they had and it was never unsupervised. I was always there and every time he said something out of line, or something adjacent to being out of line I snapped at him. You're the one that decided to let them go to my mother's unsupervised."

"Bela still does charity with your mother—"

"My father hasn't stepped in a church since he and my mother got divorced. She's spending time with my _mother_ at church doing charity work. Something my father wouldn't know anything about Santana. She's not _exposed_ to him and I call my mom or have her call me to let me know how she's doing." Charlie interrupted, he wasn't going to let her paint him as the irresponsible one.

Santana rolled her eyes, he _always_ had some excuse and _nothing_ was ever his fault. This situation was probably going to end up a clusterfuck of sorts. But they needed to at least _present_ a united front in front of their children. How they handled this situation was pivotal for the state of their family moving forward. "Whatever," she mutters as she pulls into her long driveway. It's hardly the best thing that she could come up with but the Audi parked in her driveway gives her pause. "Oh shit."

"Who is—" Charlie scowls when Sebastian steps out of his over-priced Mom car.

Sebastian pulls Santana's door open as soon as she turns the car off. "I saw the video." He sighs sympathetically. Max may not be his biggest fan, but he was a _child_. Becoming an internet sensation like _that_? Someone had clearly manipulated him and that sucked. "What's the plan?"

Charlie glares at the interloper. "The _plan_ is for Santana and _I_ to talk to _our_ kids. So thanks, but we've got this from here."

Santana rolled her eyes and lets Sebastian push the door shut behind her. "I'm sorry for him."

" _Doctor_ Sebastian Smythe." Sebastian introduces stepping away from Santana as he extends his hand toward Charlie attempting to be friendly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Wish I could say the same." Charlie crosses his arms over his chest and maybe unintentionally flexes his arms a bit.

" _Charlie_."

"What? _We_ have more important things to do than to worry about offending your dick of the week."

If Sebastian picks up on the attempted intimidation, he doesn't comment on it. Instead, he turns to Santana. "I just thought you could use the support. I can leave if you want—"

Santana bites her lip, even though she had tried she wasn't really ready for Charlie and Sebastian to be in the same room together. Asking Sebastian to leave was the easy way out and she so desperately wanted to take it, but she felt guilty. Sebastian didn't exactly live close and it would be rude to not simply invite him in. "It's okay, you can stay for a bit. All-hands on deck right?"

Charlie tilted his head to Santana for a moment before rolling his eyes, and here he thought that this was a _family emergency_.

"Whatever you need from me." Sebastian assures.

Charlie wanted to gag. _Please_. Could this guy be anymore lame? He's a _doctor_ , which meant he must be boring as fuck. "I'm going to go see my kids, when you're done playing house and want to join me with parenting I'll be inside." With that he pushed himself past the _putz_ and headed inside.

Sebastian frowned, he could smell the booze clinging to his skin. When the kids, mostly Max talked about his dad he hadn't imagined him to be an _alcoholic_. "Are you okay? I mean it's not even noon yet? Isn't it a bit early to be drinking?"

Santana flicked her eyes at Charlie's form for a moment, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his obvious jealousy. She had always been able to read him like the back of her hand. "He had a good night last night, he may have partied to hard. It's not like he _knew_ that this was going to happen, and he's sober enough. He's not— he's not like that." She studied him for a moment longer before turning to Sebastian. "Anyway, this disaster had very little to do with Charlie."

"So it's true?" Sebastian asked, when Santana raised a brow. "That she's not his?" When Santana didn't say anything right away, he frowns. "I mean it's okay if she isn't—"

"Bela is Charlie's daughter, biologically and in every way that counts. Am I irritated that he isn't around them as much as I'd like. Yes. But the divorce has been hard on _everyone_. Max felt like his father didn't love him and he's angry about the fact that CJ needs more attention than he does. I don't think he was ready for all the change. His parents splitting up, a new baby, a new city, he's acting out and we thought we handled it. I thought _Charlie_ handled it effectively at the time, but it seems it wasn't enough." Santana explains.

"Well, I know this may not sound like a popular idea but maybe he should see someone? You know a professional. It might help with whatever he's going through."

Santana frowned, she knew he was only attempting to help but Max was seven, and this current outburst aside he seemed perfectly fine. He was _seven_ , he could spend the rest of his adulthood in therapy, but right now she was going to do her best to make sure her son was alright. This was on the internet, it would probably dog him for the rest of his life. "I'll think about it, I think he's finally getting used to things and yes it might be slow." She sighs and links her hand with his. It was nice him coming over, she still had no idea what it meant between them. Things were supposed to be cooling off but here he was just as concerned just as earnest. It didn't help that her current relationship with Charlie wasn't going well.

"DAD!" Max shouted and paused when he noticed Sebastian standing in the driveway. "What's the _putz_ doing here?" Charlie turned to look at Sebastian for a moment before turning to his son and flicking him on the forehead. "Ow!"

"You'll live," Charlie said flatly. "Don't call your mother's boyfriend a putz to his face. It's rude." Max made a face at him and Charlie rolled his eyes, leaning in and dropping his voice. "I'm supposed to be the adult here Max and I've got to tell you to do things that I don't believe in. So just—do as I say not as I do."

Max rubbed his forehead, "Oh, it's cause mom's right there huh?"

"Yep."

" _Charlie_ ," Santana snapped at him.

"What? I told him not to call him a putz, what more do you want from me?" Charlie responded waving off Santana's concern. As far as he was concerned Sebastian could go jump off a bridge. His face was weird and he was short, and had small weird hands. Plus, it looked like Sebastian had a tiny micro-dick. Charlie sniffs indignantly, he had no idea what Santana saw in him. "Alright Max, I need to talk to you and Bela. It's the reason I'm here."

That was usually code for his dad taking them out somewhere fun. "Where are we going this time?"

"No Max, I'm not here to take you shopping. We're having a family meeting."

"Oh. Then why is _he_ here?"

"I don't know, but go find your sister alright?"

" _Bela_!" Max shouts as loud as he can, not moving from his spot.

Charlie cringes, "I could have done _that_." He scolds, ignoring Santana's exasperated look.

Tina ushers Bela downstairs with CJ in tow. She wordlessly pulls Bela's phone out of her own pocket and hands it over to Santana. "We've been tech free all morning. Do you want me to stay?" She asks the second question softly, shooting worried glances between Sebastian and Charlie.

"Thanks, but I think we have this from here—" Charlie scoffs and Santana ignores him. She already had three children to worry about, she didn't have time to deal with Charlie's attitude. "But I'll call you if I change my mind."

Tina squeezes Santana's elbow in a silent show of support before picking up her purse and picks up CJ, handing him to Santana. It's something they realized fairly quickly, but CJ hates it when anyone leaves and she doesn't want to add any more to Santana's plate.

Santana tries to distract him as Tina tries to quietly slip out through the garage door, but her youngest hears the click of the door and starts screaming. Charlie smirks triumphantly as their son screams like a banshee, childishly glad that Santana isn't the perfect parent she pretends to be.

Sebastian glares at Charlie and steps forward to help Santana. He's _trying_ to be a good guy here, but Charlie is basically an overgrown child. No _wonder_ Santana divorced him. "Hey CJ, why're you so sad?" He rubs the CJs back and the baby turns to him with outstretched arms.

"Daddy!" CJ cries, trying to reach Sebastian.

Santana's eyes widen at the statement immediately _regretting_ sending Tina home. CJ had never called Sebastian daddy before, and she immediately turns to look at her ex-husband, ready to stop the fight before it could begin. Charlie was fast, and if he chose to go after Sebastian right now there would be very little she could do to stop it. She hoped that holding CJ in her arms was enough to override Charlie's base instincts. "CJ, no Sebastian isn't your daddy—"

"Daddy! Daddy!" CJ repeats struggling in Santana's' arms.

Santana winces this was not going well at all, and she had no idea how to fix this. "Sebastian—look I think you need to leave."

Charlie steps forward and rips CJ out of Santana's arms, ignoring the way his son flails against him in an attempt to get away. He's _crushed_ and still a little hung over, and he just doesn't give a damn. "CJ, stop it." Turning to sneer at Sebastian, he adds. "Get the fuck out of my house."

But Sebastian is not one to back down from a fight. He's tried to be the perfect boyfriend—or whatever it is that he and Santana are doing—and he's not about to leave her alone with this brute. "Your house? Pretty sure that this is _Santana's_ house. You don't even _live_ here."

"She bought it with _my_ money and I'm pretty sure that makes it _my_ house." Charlie snaps. "Now get the _fuck out_ before I fucking throw you out."

" _Charlie_."

Charlie turns to her. " _What_?" He snaps, this was supposed to be a _family_ meeting. Yet here was his _son_ , calling some fucking douchebag daddy. How long had _that_ been going on? CJ hadn't even hesitated with it, it had probably been going on for a while.

" _Kitchen_. Now." Santana snaps back, shooting him an unflinching glare. She wasn't afraid of him; she'd never be afraid of him. She waits until Charlie finally looks away and marches to the kitchen, still holding CJ in his arms. She turns her attention to Bela and Max who were in a state of shock, Charlie was angry and it was scary, but they had never been witness to something so ugly before. She inhales and lowers her voice so it's not so scary. "Can you two just—wait in the rec room? _Please_?"

"But—" Max began.

"Come on Max," Bela grunted grabbing his arm and pulling him away.

Sebastian waits until they're alone before speaking up. "I'm sorry."

"Sebastian—I'm sorry, I just need you to go. I've got way too much stuff going on right now—"

"Are you sure? I saw how he handled CJ—"

"I know, I'll talk to him but you need to go, there's far too much going on right now and I just need some time to figure this out." Santana interrupts holding her hand up. One disaster at time. "There's way too much drama at this point in time and I'm not going to let my kids witness the two of you go at it. So for now can you please just go?"

Sebastian frowns before nodding, "Yeah, sure. I'll wait outside? If you need me—"

"I need you to go home." Santana repeats again. This was a disaster of epic proportions and she needed to regain control. "Go home Sebastian, I'll call you."

He sighs and gives her a quick kiss goodbye, not saying a word when she doesn't really return it. "I'll call you." He promises.

She nods and closes the door behind him, leaning against it as she tries to bite down on her anger. She's _furious_ with Charlie. How dare he come into her house and act like an asshole? _His_ house? What did he think she was, some two-bit whore?

She grinds her teeth and pulls her fingers into a tight fist, her nails pushing forcefully against the palm of her hand. It was one thing to have the rest of the world speculating that she was just some gold digging skank, but to have Charlie suggest that in her own home? The home that she paid for with her _own_ money, fuck him. She'd rip off his balls and feed it down his throat if he weren't the father of her children.

As much as she wanted to absolutely murder him, there _was_ something more pressing. She storms toward the kitchen and tries to swallow down her anger. "You need to calm the fuck down."

" _I_ need to calm the fuck down?" Charlie spins toward her with a wailing CJ still in his arms. CJ sees his mother and reaches out for her. She accepts the baby and that only serves to make Charlie even more pissed off. "Your _boy-toy_ needs to fucking grow a pair. What the hell was he doing here anyway—?"

" _Stop_." She holds up one palm defensively. Gesturing between the two of them, she drops her voice low so that the kids won't overhear, though CJ's cries are probably a good enough cover she isn't going to take any chances. "This, can wait. I know you think you have some right to be pissed at me and I am _furious_ with you, but that doesn't change the fact that we need to suck it up and talk to our kids."

"You should have thought of that before you invited him _inside_."

Santana frowns and wraps her arms around CJ, rocking him as she does. He was scared and he could probably _feel_ the tension. "I don't care; this is _my_ house. I'm allowed to have whoever I want as a guest here. But let me make one thing absolutely clear to you, I don't care how much you want to _bitch_ about it. If you _ever_ pull a stunt like that again, where you _grab_ CJ out of someone's arms, I swear to god you will never see your children again. That isn't up for discussion, go ahead and call your fancy lawyers, I don't care. You're physically strong and CJ isn't even _three_ yet. You probably gave him some bruises and you scared him. So get over yourself and when you think you can actually act like a fucking adult, come join me in the other room."

She turns on her heel and walks away not even bothering with a backward glance. She storms toward the rec room, forcing herself to relax and calm her steps. CJ does start to calm down, his wails turning into pathetic sobs with some shuddering breaths. She rolls her eyes and tries not to find his dramatic display slightly adorable. She slips into the rec room, leaving the door open for Charlie to follow if he can ever get his act together. "Good morning." She smiles at her kids warmly.

"It's afternoon." Max notes suspiciously. Mom had said that they had to go to school today, and while he wasn't complaining, she was acting weird.

"Right." Santana takes a deep breath and puts CJ on the floor. The baby immediately crawls to Bela and climbs up on her lap. "Your dad and I wanted to have a family meeting."

"Why? What did you do?" Max asks curiously.

Santana narrows her eyes at him, "What did I do?" She repeats. This disaster was _not_ even close to being her fault.

"Ignore him, he wanted to watch dad beat up Sebastian," Bela shrugs.

"You wanted to watch it too!" Max frowns looking at his sister and poking her in the side.

"There is not going to be any _beating_ up," Santana admits holding up her hands before it can devolve. "Your father acted _poorly_ and I don't want you kids thinking that _violence_ is the answer. It is never the answer. But that's not why we're in here."

"So where is dad?" Bela pressed ignoring her mother's little speech.

"In the kitchen last time I checked, I think he just needs to calm down." Santana sighed, this was not going as she had planned. "Look the reason your father came over was to discuss the new video that showed up on TMZ and Gawker and all those trashy websites."

"Did he have a sexed tape again?" Max furrows his brow thoughtfully. "Do we have to move again?"

"It's a _sex_ tape." Bela corrects, glancing at her mom for the second question. "Do we?"

"What do you know about the sex tape?" Santana questioned Max, she had explained it to him but she was sure that he didn't really understand.

"Dad was naked with a girl who wasn't you," Max crinkled his nose. "That was bad. That's what Aunt Brittany told me. That he's only supposed to be naked in front of you."

Santana snorted it was a very _simple_ way of putting it. "Yes, I guess that's right—but your dad doesn't have another one of those out. In fact, this isn't really about your dad Max, this is about _you_."

"Is it because I peed on Miss Pillsbury's bushes?" Max's eyes were wide.

"No—wait, you did _what_?" Santana snorts despite herself at the thought of her son 'watering' the neighbor's plants. If she found out—

"Oh." Max slunk back into the couch. "What'd I do then?"

"You told the world that Bela isn't your sister." Charlie announces bluntly, sliding into the room and settling down on the overstuffed arm chair beside the couch where his children sat.

"Charlie—" Santana hisses. She was going to break it to them gently so that they could figure out a plan together.

Max cocked his head to the side, confused. "No I didn't. I didn't _make_ a video."

"I figured as much," Charlie tilted his head to Bela who looked shocked. "Before we really start, Max. Bela is my daughter. I got naked with your mother and nine months later she was born. She's your real sister, which means that she can probably donate a kidney to you if you need it."

Santana's jaw dropped. " _Dad_." Bela snapped at him, horrified at how blunt he was being. She wasn't sure if she liked it.

Max crinkled his nose. "Oh. Did you get naked with mom for me and CJ?"

"Yes."

"But you got naked with that girl who wasn't mom," Max pointed out. "Does that mean I have another brother or sister somewhere?"

"No. You don't." Charlie responds leaning back in his chair. "But let's focus on what's important, Max there is a video of you saying that Bela isn't your sister on the internet and there's nothing we can do to take it down."

"But I didn't _make_ a video! And I didn't put it on the internet!"

"Your grandpa Russ did it." Charlie explains. "He took the video and gave it to the people to put on the internet."

"Grandpa Russ?" Max shakes his head. "Why would he do that? Grandpa Russ is my friend."

"Because Grandpa Russ hates me." Bela swallows down the lump in her throat at the admission.

"No." Santana corrects. "Your Grandpa Russ hates _me._ Bela, Max I'm _so_ sorry this has happened but we're a family and we are going to handle it together."

Max has a sick feeling in his stomach and turns to his mom, fighting tears. "Why does he hate you? What did you do?"

Santana opens up her arms and pulls Max into a warm hug. "Sometimes people just don't get along." She tries to explain.

But Charlie's not going to let his kids have any question about the type of man their 'Grandpa Russ' really is. "Your grandfather only likes two things. Money and power." He takes a deep breath, wishing that he had figured _that_ out years ago. "And he doesn't like your mom because I listened to her instead of him. This, this was an attempt to get your mom and I fighting again. He wants to hurt her because he blames her for the fact that I decided that he wasn't going to be my agent. I found out he did something terrible and I fired him, he blames your mom. He doesn't love you, he doesn't love me, he loves money and power and because of that he's a very dangerous man. Who you weren't supposed to have any contact with." He shoots a pointed look at Santana who rolls her eyes at the unspoken comment.

"It's going to be okay." Santana assures, rubbing Max's back and looking at her daughter closely. "This will all blow over in a couple of days, and your dad and I will do everything we can to fix it."

"Bela, you know that no matter what anyone says—" Charlie started, only to stop when Bela jumps to her feet.

"No! He already won!" She shakes her head angrily. She's not stupid, she's known for a long time that Grandpa Russ didn't like her as much as he liked Max, but this is _mortifying_. Everybody at school was going to be talking about it and there wasn't anything she could really do. Yeah, she knew the truth. But no one would actually _believe_ her.

"What do you mean?" Charlie frowns.

"You said Grandpa Russ wanted to make you and mom fight. Well it _worked_. You almost beat up the putz and everything is _ruined_."

"Bela—" Santana tries.

"It's _your_ fault!" Bela snaps at her mother.

Santana winces at the biting comment but shakes her head. She was used to this, taking the blame. "I—"

"It's my fault." Charlie interrupts. "It's not your mother's fault, it's _my_ fault. I knew that your grandpa Russ was not a good man. I mean he doesn't like your Aunt Quinn and your mom wanted him _out_ of our lives. She wanted you kids to be safe but I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I could control him. He wanted my money, and I thought that it would make him _behave_."

" _Mom's_ the one who let us see Grandma and Grandpa Russ was there too." Bela counters. She can't lash out at her dad, not when she still felt like their relationship was still shaky. It wasn't fair, but her mom was an easy target. "If you didn't make us move—"

"No." Charlie inserts again. He's not going to let Santana take the blame for this, not when the only things Bela can say to her mother is to blame her for things that _weren't_ her fault. "I chose your Grandpa Russ over your mother. _That_ is why we got divorced. So if you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me."

"Why?" Max asks, sniffing. "Didn't you want to be a family anymore?"

Charlie blew out a breath. "No Max. I just—I guess I thought he was my friend too."

Bela freezes. She's asked her mom _millions_ of times why she wouldn't just forgive her dad and her mom had always given some vague answer. But her mom couldn't forgive her dad because her dad didn't _want_ them anymore. Betrayed, she picks up CJ and storms out of the room, stomping up every single step until she reaches her bedroom to slam the door as hard as she can.

Santana sighs and rubs Max back gently. "Your father and I aren't fighting because of your grandfather. I promise, we're just super stressed out today and we took it out on each other. We love you kids and we get a bit— _passionate_ when it comes to defending you. You're not in trouble Max but you're going to stay at home for the next few days until this blows over okay?"

"Does Bela hate me now?" Max mumbles.

"No I think she's super mad at me now. But you should still apologize until she forgives you." Charlie offers Max the best advice he could think of.

She steers Max's shoulders toward the door and offers him a supportive nudge. "I think it'd be a good idea if you start apologizing now." Santana waits until she's sure Max is out of range and feels her shoulders slump. "Thanks." She mutters to her ex-husband.

Charlie stands suddenly feeling awkward. "I should probably go. My ride is going to be here any second."

"Oh." Santana nods like that makes sense even though it feels abrupt and awkward. "Sure. I'm just—"

"It was my fault; I'll talk to the kids when they're not so mad at me anymore." Charlie shrugs his shoulders not quite sure what else to say. So he doesn't say anything at all instead he just shuffles out of the rec room and towards the front entrance.


	35. Chapter 35

Santana watched as CJ banged on his plate, stuffing food into his mouth messily. He garbled and muttered words together as he ate a giant smile on his face. He was always happiest when he was eating and this was no exception. If anything it was a _nice_ change of pace from the tension that currently filled the room. She sighs and turns to her two other children, it had been two weeks since the incident with the video, and she was _grateful_ that their spring break was starting soon. Even if she didn't quite know how she was going to keep the kids distracted. Charlie was always better coming up with random activities to keep them entertained then she was. "So I was thinking that after your father's game tonight he could stop by. You know you guys can do that camping out thing you normally do and—"

Bela looked up from where she was playing with her food, she wasn't a _baby_ anymore and she noticed Max perking up at that information. "I have _homework_. We've missed a _lot_ of school and my grades are finally up. I want to keep them up."

"That sounds like—" Max scowled when Bela pinched him and gave him a look. "Oh. Right. I have homework too."

Santana frowned, there was something definitely wrong with this picture. Bela was twelve and she was already back to being the _moody_ pre-teen, which didn't bode well for her teenage years, but Max—Max never turned down an opportunity to spend time with his dad. Certainly not because of _homework_ , he wasn't _that_ responsible. "I see, when was the last time you talked to your dad?" Max shrugged and went back to picking at his meal and she turned to Bela. " _Bela_."

"He called a few times but stopped calling when we wouldn't answer. So the last time he was here," Bela answered truthfully and with another shrug.

Santana bit her lip and looked over at CJ who threw was now squishing his food in his high chair, he was still talking to it and she shakes her head. "Why not? Your dad loves you and—"

"No. He doesn't," Bela interrupts. "He doesn't love us."

Santana pursed her lips into a tight line. "I see. But you two do know that this is your dad's weekend, right?"

"Dad said we don't have to go with him if we don't want to." Max adds, pushing the food around on his plate without looking up.

She puts her fork down, sighing. When did _this_ become a thing? Whatever it was, she was putting a stop to it right now. "You're right. You don't have to go with him if you don't want to. But _I'm_ going camping with him and you three are just going to have to tag along."

Bela frowned, "Why? So we can watch you two _fight_ all weekend and then try and be weird by pretending to be happy? Tina can watch us, or we can spend the weekend with Abuela and Abuelo. We haven't spent the weekend with them in a while."

"Unless they're bad people too," Max adds.

"Your Abuelos are not bad people." Santana shakes her head. "And who says that dad and I are going to fight?"

"You _always_ fight, and when you don't you're just weird around and it doesn't feel great to be around the two of you. You both look angry." Bela pointed out, it had been easy to ignore but the eruption that had happened two weeks ago was still in the forefront of her mind.

"Well we aren't angry anymore." Santana declares. It's a bold faced lie but if it got them out of the house and back with Charlie then she'd swallow all of her feelings for her ex.

"Bullshit." Bela muttered.

Max's eyes widen a bit as he looks at her. She had said a bad word and he pushes his chair away from his sister to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Santana arches her brow and Bela flushes guiltily and avoids Santana's gaze. "Language. Last thing we need is CJ parroting the word. It's not by the way. Your father and I—well we're very passionate about things, especially the three of you. We both love you and parenting hasn't been the easiest now that we're separated."

"You're not separated, you're _divorced_." Bela points out, defiantly meeting her mother's eyes.

Santana frowns. Bela was too much like she was at that age. "Now that we're divorced. Your father's schedule means that he can't spend as much time with you as he wants to. It's not that he _doesn't_ want to spend time with you guys. Look, I know things have been weird but your dad and I can get along. We do get along most of the time."

Bela rolled her eyes, she wanted to ask when that was but her mom would just lie to her face and she didn't want to spend dinner arguing over it. "Fine if you want to spend your entire weekend arguing with dad then go ahead. I'd rather spend time with Sebastian."

Max made a face, "But he's a _putz_."

"Yeah, I know, but it's better than watching dad and mom pretend not to hate each other, because they don't think we notice."

"I guess so," Max huffed before leaning in, "We don't have to actually spend time with him do we?"

"No."

"Good. I don't like him."

Santana scowled, "Fine, CJ and I will have a fun time with your dad while the two of you can be grumpy in a corner somewhere." She turns to her son and winces at the sight of food everywhere a pleased grin on CJ's face. "We're going to have fun with daddy aren't we?"

"CJ's a baby, he doesn't know any better. And you can wiggle a string in front of him and he'll be pleased." Bela reminds her mom.

Santana scowls at Bela, she wasn't going to be undone by a _twelve-year-old_. "Well, be like that your father and I will have a blast tomorrow." Even if she had to smack Charlie into submission they would have fun like a normal family. Or at least pretend like every other divorced couple.

~O~

Charlie flopped down on his couch in his boxers, grimacing as he caught a whiff of himself. That workout had been _exhausting_ and it had been good to take his mind off the fact that his kids now hated him. Tonight was supposed to be _his time_ with the kids but fourteen ignored calls to Bela and Max made him take a hint.

He frowns when someone knocks at the door and glances at his fancy security system. His tablet is all the way on the other side of the room. He groans and stands, shuffling tiredly toward the door. He pulls the door open quickly, intent on telling whoever it is to go the fuck away. He stops at the sight Santana standing there bouncing CJ in her arms. He blinks, "Santana?"

Santana crinkled her nose taking a step back, "God, you _smell_."

Charlie blinked twice again, and stared at his ex-wife before poking his head to see if Bela and Max were around. They weren't and he reaches for CJ well, one out of three wasn't bad. "Yeah, I know. Just got done with a workout, I'll take a bath with CJ."

Santana sighs when CJ clings to her, burying his head in her shoulder. Maybe he still remembered last time, but it was doubtful. Her son could barely remember that he had eaten five minutes ago before declaring that he was hungry. "No. That's not the plan for today Charlie. You're going to go shower; you're going to put on something clean so my eyes aren't watering from how _bad_ you smell. We're going to go downstairs and go out for lunch all while pretending we don't _hate_ each other for our children."

"I don't—" Charlie begins and then sighs and rolls his eyes. This sounded like a clusterfuck that he didn't really want to be a part of. They didn't have stupid kids. Sure Max didn't always seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to anything other than basketball but they were relatively observant. "So we're pretending that our kids are blind idiots now?"

"No. We're acknowledging our kids are _children_ and aren't all-knowing little shits." Santana snaps. "We've given them enough rope, and lee-way because we're divorced but they're _children_. They need us to tell them what to do. They don't get to decide that they don't want to spend time with you, or that they don't want to deal with us because we're not being perfect parents."

Charlie stared at Santana and opened his mouth then closed it. Santana was clearly in one of _those_ moods and even though they weren't married anymore, he knew from personal experience that it was just easier to nod his head and give her what she wanted without much fuss. "Right, pretend to be happy got it." Charlie responded flatly after a moment. "I'm going to go shower now," he adds as he turns around, he's tempted to step out of his boxers in front of her but doesn't. He doesn't need her yelling about sexual harassment even though this was _his_ apartment and she usually showed up when he was wearing very little clothes. If he didn't spend most of his days in his boxers or shorts he'd think it was some conspiracy on Santana's part.

"Good!" Santana smirks, she hadn't needed to beat her ex-husband into submission on this. He didn't look particularly thrilled about the plans, but it was one step at a time. By the time he was around the kids he'd probably cheer up. "Look, the plan is simple. We just need to keep our shit close to our chest and pretend that we aren't mortal enemies. The kids think we hate each other because apparently two grown adults can't disagree." She's tempted to add that part of this day was to show the kids that Charlie didn't hate them.

"Well, they _don't_ know everything. I don't hate you," Charlie admits as he kicks the door closed to his room and drops his boxers stepping out of them.

Santana's jaw snapped shut as CJ begins to fuss and she immediately regrets not bringing the stroller with her as she puts him down so he can stretch his legs a bit. He immediately toddles off to where there are some of his toys within easy access. Charlie _most likely_ hadn't moved anything since the last time the kids were there. She sighs and glances at his bedroom door and makes a face running a hand through her hair. "I don't hate you either," she admits before turning her attention back to CJ who was currently smashing his toy car into his dad's hardwood floors. "CJ, _no_!"

~O~

"What is _that_?" Bela scrunched her nose distastefully from the corner.

Charlie scowls, poking at his kale 'salad' which was mostly still just kale. " _That_ is what you have to eat when your job is to play sports all day long."

"But I thought we were camping?" Max wonders from his own spot in the corner.

Santana smirks and ignores them, instead leaning back against Charlie's couch. They are 'camping' tonight, or at least they are pulling the closest version of camping that Santana was willing to torture herself with. The kids hadn't been happy, but one big family sleepover in Charlie's living room was a damn good place for them to start getting their act together again. "Do you hear something? I don't hear anything."

"Me neither." Charlie agrees. He glanced over at CJ who was staring at his food and picks up a piece of kale and holds it out for him. If CJ wanted to eat it, then so be it. Kale was disgusting and he couldn't wait for the playoffs to be over so he could finally eat real food. "Here you go buddy." Charlie says watching as CJ leans forward and takes a bite. He chews for a second before immediately making a face and spitting it out. CJ immediately looks at him like he's some sort of monster and Charlie sighs. It's how he felt daily. "Yummy?"

CJ reaches forward and smacks the offending kale from Charlie's hand, before crawling back to his mother, tears in his eyes. "No!"

Santana smiles and reaches for the pizza box and pulls off a slice for her son. "Want some pizza CJ?"

CJ grins widely, "Za!" He cheers reaching for the pizza and biting into it. "Za!" He begins to chew on the pizza noisily, his mouth opening closing as he munches on it.

Max bites his lip as his stomach growls, this was boring and it looked like his parents were happy—well his dad looked miserable but he always looked miserable when he had to eat gross food. "Can we have some pizza?"

"I thought you guys said you had homework? And besides the pizza is only for the campers."

"It's not even camping." Bela grumbles, pretending to look busy.

"Then what are _we_ supposed to have for dinner?" Max demanded clutching at his stomach.

Santana hums and looks over at Charlie, "What do you have in your fridge?"

"Oh, I've got a few more portions of kale salad. That I need to get rid of. I think I have a spinach one I mean they both taste like crap but it's food right?"

Santana smirked as she turned to look at the horror on Max's face. She could kiss him, Charlie probably had something that still tasted good and was relatively healthy in his fridge. But he was playing this up with ease. "Well Max? Which one do you want the spinach or the kale?"

Max looked at his sister and patted her arm, "This isn't fun anymore, I want to go have pizza with them and camp out. It looks like fun and they aren't arguing. Have fun!" Max said as he scrambled off the chair and headed to the living space pulling off his shirt and working on his pants.

"'Ax!" CJ giggles in delight, holding up his half-gummed pizza to his brother.

"Traitor." Bela mutters under her breath. She _knew_ her parents and they were acting all happy and fun like they used to, but she wasn't some little kid anymore. They were only doing this because her mom wanted to make a point.

"I'm so glad you were able to make the hike, Max." Santana grins, handing her son the biggest piece of pizza she could find.

Charlie glances over his shoulder at his daughter, frowning at the thought of her being left out. "Bela, if you've finished your homework, we'd love to have you join us."

"I'd rather eat spinach."

"Well help yourself there's plenty in your father's fridge," Santana responded simply. She turns back to her sons, "So I also brought stuff so we could make s'mores." This wasn't her fancy stuff; she didn't really care if there were chocolate stains on Charlie's pillows or crumbs.

"And popcorn? Can we watch a movie too?" Max asks taking a bite of CJ's pizza when his brother attempts to feed him. It causes CJ to laugh and he grins pleased as he pulls CJ against him letting him sit on his lap.

"We can do whatever you want, kiddo." Charlie shoots Santana a grin. He tries to ignore Bela huffing and stomping toward her bedroom. Right now he had to focus on what he _could_ do. They would worry about Bela later.

~0~

Hours later Santana eyes flicker as she wakes up, groaning as her stiff neck protests the weird position she's fallen asleep in on Charlie's floor. The movie is looping on the title sequence and she wonders how long she had really been asleep. She immediately turns attempting to find CJ only to see that he's asleep beside Max who is busy drooling on the pillows on the floor. She exhales deeply and runs her hand along CJ's stomach, wincing at the sticky sensation that coats her fingers. Probably the chocolate. Most likely the chocolate. She cringes, just praying it wasn't poop and stands to wash her hand.

As she reaches for the soap, she catches a glimpse of Charlie out on his balcony. She turns off the water and slides out to join him, hoping that she doesn't wake either of the boys. "Hey." She announces herself softly.

He startles turning to look at her, "Hey."

For a minute, as brief as it is, Santana almost feels like no time has passed. That it's still that first night after confirming her pregnancy with CJ. Before media circuses and rape allegations and paternity questions. "Can't sleep?"

Charlie chuckles humorlessly. "No. Playoffs are coming up."

"Can't say that I miss that. The grouchiness because of the ice-baths, and the shitty food." Santana exhales slowly, he was always miserable during playoffs. "Are you holding up okay?"

Charlie shrugs, "I've been keeping busy. My focus is split right now. There's a restraining order on my father by the way if you or the kids see him, you call the police. I also got into it with my mother, you know? I said I don't care if she wants to sleep with him or pretend that he's changed. If she wants anything to do with the kids, then she _needs_ to keep him away from them. She wasn't thrilled when Quinn laid down the same law."

Santana raises her brow. "I'm impressed."

"Yeah, well I should have done it years ago." Charlie glances back over the cityscape and scratches the back of his head thoughtfully.

Santana doesn't say anything, "Maybe. But I don't think there's any point in hashing out the past. We've both made our choices and now we have to live with them."

"Yeah." Charlie agrees leaning against the railing. "How are things on your end?"

Santana made a face, "I lost some endorsements."

"Shit, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. The network wasn't exactly happy, but I don't really care about endorsement deals if something like _that_ is the reason I lose the money. But I did end up calling that agent that Sue suggested. There are ways that I can make money and still be in Cleveland. It's harder for someone like me, but you know Basketball wives wants to start a new show in the Midwest."

"Really? You want to go back to them? You always rolled your eyes and mocked the women who weren't actually basketball wives, or even girlfriends." Charlie reminded her. There had been many snarky comments from Santana about it. Some of which had been caught on tape, the whole experience wasn't going to make her happy. He knew that much.

Santana frowned, "So you don't think I should do it?"

"I think our family has spent enough time in front of the camera's. The kids have a shot of being relatively normal. I mean as normal as our kids can be."

Santana smirks at that. "Our kids? No way. They never even had a chance at being normal."

Charlie laughs. "I guess you're right."

They fall into a comfortable silence. After a minute, Charlie clears his throat, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if this hadn't all worked out. If I had stayed in school, or quit basketball all together and even with Bela we had just made it work?"

Santana leans against the railing, following Charlie's gaze along the city scape. "Sometimes. You probably would have gotten a degree in something ridiculous just to beat Quinn."

"That was always my favorite pastime." Charlie agrees. He notices Santana shiver and he shifts closer so that his body could keep her warm. "Bela's your daughter you know," Charlie says after a moment.

"Stubborn to a fault?" Santana responds dryly. "Trust me I know. I didn't actually think that she would crack but it was worth a try. Max lasted longer than I thought he would. But he's been trying to make it up to Bela."

"I know, but I don't understand why she's even angry," Charlie admits.

"I _think_ that she believes that we aren't together because you don't want to be a family anymore. That you don't love them. I think that our kids need to stop spending time around their Aunt Rachel because they're far too dramatic."

"Really? You're putting this on Rachel? I would think that you'd blame Britt for giving our kids such short-term memory, or whatever. I mean at least CJ has an excuse for forgetting, but Bela thinking that I don't love them? Given everything that has happened recently? I mean be angry for not dealing with my father before this little shit show but not loving them? Maybe you're right and they _are_ taking cues from Rachel on how to be overdramatic."

Santana snorts, it's easy when they're like this. It reminds her of _before_ everything happened. "Even though I think she's back to being a know-it-all little shit—"

"You were the same when you were her age."

Santana scowled at him and swatted his arm gently. "I expect that from my parents, not you. You're supposed to be on my side." He flashes her that broad smile of his, that brings the dimples to his face and she's forced to look away.

"Oh, right. Continue."

"But even a know-it-all little shit is right every once in awhile. We do need to get our act together." Santana sighs, "We can't keep doing this thing where we try to pretend that either of us can do it on our own."

"You were doing pretty well without me." Charlie admits softly.

"I'm not. Not really. I'm just holding down the fort, just like I did when we were together. You were gone a lot and it was difficult."

"It wasn't easy being away either. Do you remember how Max _hated_ me when I came home after our first Christmas road trip?"

"Like I said, they spend way too much time around Rachel. You know she's been calling me every day about being pregnant. I think she's taking _extensive_ notes on what to expect. Whether she should use drugs or not."

Charlie snorted at the image. "I'd feel sorry for Quinn but—it's Quinn she deserves whatever she gets."

Santana smiles, "It's getting close to the due date and they want me up there for a little bit, so I was thinking of taking the kids to New York, just for a week. You'll probably be in the middle of playoffs anyway. I mean if New York manages to get to the second round, you'll probably be there for a few days anyway."

"You've been paying attention to the standings?"

Santana hesitated, it would be so easy to blame this on Max. "Of course I have, it's the playoffs, I need to know what your schedule is like, because you're _still_ rather last minute when it comes to picking up the kids. Though in my _personal_ opinion, I think you should focus. Cleveland needs a ring."

Charlie grins. "We do, don't we?" He hesitates just for a minute, debating whether to say his next comment or not. After a minute, he decides to just go for it. "Well as long as we're giving _personal opinions_ —"

"We aren't, you're a grumpy bastard during playoffs, I'm saying that you should focus on getting the ring because the kids are going to avoid you like the plague until the season's officially over." Santana sniffs indignantly, she didn't want to hear his opinion on Sebastian. Charlie raises a brow and she shrugs. "I just think things will be better if we were friends."

"We were _never_ friends." Charlie responds, despite his flat tone his eyes danced with amusement.

"Are you mentally rewriting history again to make yourself look cool?"

"No. I'm saying that we were never friends. You were friends with Quinn and Brittany. Your favorite pastime was bossing me around and tormenting me when we were kids."

" _Me_? Torment _you_?" Santana scoffs playfully. "Never." He laughs and she shakes her head. "We just wanted you to play with us, you couldn't spend every moment in your room like a weirdo. You should be _thanking_ us."

"I was in my room _hiding_ from the three of you."

"That was probably wise. It made it easier for us to blame you when we broke something."

"I _knew_ that was you."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Fine, if I made your life a living hell then why did you ask me out?" She poked him when he didn't say anything. "Come on."

Charlie flushed in the moonlight and tilted his head, "Proximity, mostly. That's why most people fall in love—you were—"

Santana raised a brow, it was so reminiscent of their middle school years. He would get flustered and start playing with his hands and his vocabulary would increase in an attempt to obfuscate his real meaning. She knew big words as well but it was easier to simply make him say it in simple terms. "Dork speak? Really? You haven't done that in a while. Come on tell me the real reason."

"I don't know, I woke up one day and you were pretty enough that the fact that you were tormenting me was secondary."

"So you _liked it_."

"Please, I was a thirteen-year-old boy who was going through puberty and you wore these bikinis' around our pool. I think you could have stabbed me a million times and I wouldn't have noticed."

"Right." Santana laughs skeptically. "You know you liked it." She pokes him in his ribs and he swats her hand away. When she goes to poke him again, he wraps his hand around her wrist and holds it gently, meeting her eyes with a teasing smirk.

"I will _never_ admit that." Charlie holds his hand around her wrist, preventing any further onslaught. He swallows when she takes a step closer, invading his personal space.

"You don't have to, apparently your body says it all," Santana mocks, reaching with her free hand to gently pat his dick through the thin fabric. When his breath catches and he leans back against the wall, his eyes daring her to back down.

He's dreamt of this moment multiple times over the last two years. When Santana doesn't flinch and doesn't pull away, he pulls her closer to him and closes the distance between them pressing his lips against her own. It takes a moment, which feels like forever, till Santana responds and he quickly seized control of the situation, using one arm to pull her closer as he twisted them around so that his frame was protecting her. They were still outside, people had already seen his ass. It wasn't as if they could get naked either. Not with the kids sleeping a few feet away. They would need to be quick and quiet.

Santana groans against him as he lets go of her wrist and firmly cups her breast. He's always been a boob guy, and she's never exactly been good at being quiet. She tugs his pants down, years of experience making her a pro at getting him out of his basketball shorts in as little time as possible. She feels him tug at her shirt and smirks against his lips. It's hurried and frantic and she's trying not to think about how she's not drunk enough to be making stupid decisions like this but right now she just doesn't care. " _Yes_ ," she groans, as he slides into her after yanking her underwear out of the way.

No matter how much time had passed he _knew_ her body, understood it like the back of his hand, and even though his hips are moving quickly, he's still making sure to angle his hips a bit so his dick is hitting all the right places as he begins to work on her neck, his fingers digging into her hips. She can't help herself letting out a low moan as she grips his shoulders for better leverage and for a split second she sees something flash across his face. Pain, it's not enough to get her to stop especially when he starts moving his hips faster.

"Shit, _Santana_ ," he grunts. This was so much better than his fantasies even if he would have preferred to be in a nice bed with her. This would have to do until—

"Mom? Dad?"

Santana curses mentally as Charlie slams into her once more, mostly in shock and she winces a bit. It had been a bit too forceful, but she couldn't blame him. "Maxie?"

"What are you doing?" Max rubs his eye tiredly. He heard voices and thought they were fighting, but—they seemed to be getting along. "Are you fighting again?"

Santana tilts her head to glare at Charlie, she was drawing a blank and the last thing she wanted let alone needed was to be caught having sex with her _ex-_ husband by her seven-year-old son.

Charlie coughs. "We were just—making up." He blurts out the first thing he can think of. "Can you give us a second, Buddy?"

Making up. The words wash over her like a cold shower. "Right." She gently pulls herself away from her ex-husband and readjusts her clothes to keep from scarring her son for life. "Come on, Maxie, let's go back to bed."

"Santana—" Charlie whines after her, slipping his shorts back on.

She turns away, forcibly ignoring him. She hates that she feels as if one look from Charlie could melt her resolve instantly. She winces just as CJ blearily toddles towards them and trips over his own two feet. She rushes forward before he can really start to cry.

Charlie watches the drama play out with a defeated slump to his shoulders. For just a minute, everything seemed perfect.

And then it was over.


	36. Chapter 36

"Look, Britt, I love you. I do. I also know you're here for Mike and his first playoff game—" Santana began, yawning as she tried to be as pleasant as possible. Even though it was insanely early on a Saturday morning, a morning which she had needed to drag herself out of bed to stop Brittany from waking up CJ by banging on the door. "But I don't see why you need to crash with _us_ and not him." She rubbed her eye as she moved to make herself a cup of coffee.

"Because I'm not allowed to have sex with him or something," Brittany responded crinkling her nose. "Is that a thing? You're not allowed to have sex during playoffs?"

Santana cleared her throat, it had been two weeks since she had seen Charlie. Things had undeniably been awkward between them, with Charlie attempting to start things up again between them. She had ignored his texts for more family time, and dinner dates until he finally got the message. "Maybe, I don't know. Charlie was never really in the mood during playoffs." Santana responds turning to look at Brittany. She shoots her sister-in-law an unamused look when Brittany gags. "I don't think it's a hard and fast rule. Though I think it's mostly telling them to _focus_ on the championship. No drama."

Brittany pouted at the idea, "Well, I think Mike should still be a bit more considerate and handle my needs as well. All because it's playoffs doesn't mean that I shouldn't get laid." Brittany mutters mostly under her breath.

"Well, that's fine, I get it, you won't be able to keep your hands off him. But why not crash at Charlie's?" Santana presses again. It wasn't as if she didn't want Brittany around but she did have a schedule for her kids and Brittany was the beloved aunt who wrecked all her plans.

"He said no, something about how when he was in LA and wanted to crash at my place I said no to him because I wanted to sleep with Mike. He's getting lessons from Quinn on how to hold a grudge. He forgets that it took nearly a month to get his stink out of my apartment after he moved. _Plus,_ I found some of his underwear left behind. It was disgusting. How could you live with that?"

"We had a maid and when he was in one of his moods I had a squirt bottle," Santana smirked. Charlie would get frisky after his workouts, generally when he was his sweatiest and she would need to squirt him to make him get off. It usually ended with her joining him in his shower.

"And you have _two_ boys," Brittany shakes her head. "You have no idea how bad it's going to be."

Santana rolled her eyes and pushed a mug towards Brittany, "I'm more concerned about the amount of food the two of them are going to consume as for the stink—well I have a hose."

Brittany shook her head and was about to say something when something latched onto her leg and she looked down after nearly jumping in shock. "CJ? What are you doing out of bed?"

Santana groaned, she had given up on keeping the child gates in front of the stairs after seeing CJ attempt to climb it. She watched as Brittany hoisted him up and he immediately began to cling to her. "I need to invest in one of those children leashes."

CJ spat out his pacifier, turning to his mom and making a face. "Hungy. Mommy. Hungy!"

"Of course you are," Santana rolls her eyes. "See, like I said I'm more concerned about the food then I am about the smell." Santana shakes her head and opens the cabinet to see if she could find CJ some cereal to munch on before she actually began to make breakfast.

Brittany smiled as Santana put a bowl of Cheerios in front of him and she reached for some only to have CJ smack her hand away. She puffs out her cheeks, this was most definitely Charlie's son. "So how are things with you and Sebastian? He seems nice—"

"CJ called him daddy in front of Charlie," Santana interrupts. "It started this _thing_. Sebastian is trying to become more involved which is problematic because Max _loathes_ him, and Bela is indifferent to Sebastian. I don't think she likes him but she doesn't really hate him either. Either way, I need to break up with him. No matter what I feel about Charlie, CJ is _his_ son. I don't want him growing up confused about that or want him to love a man that isn't his father more."

Brittany nods, it made sense, "Did Charlie punch him? Sebastian?"

"Charlie's never been in anything more than a shoving match if he punched someone he'd break his hand and you would have known about it." Santana snorted shaking her head. It was odd, her ex was not one for machismo, but a line had been crossed and even though she had ripped into him, she may have been far too harsh. "Britt, do you think I should—"

Brittany frowns when her phone begins to ring and vibrate loudly, startling CJ whose face scrunches up as he reaches for his mom wanting to be held. She glances down and smirks when she sees who is calling _'Q-tip.'_ "Quinnie!" She squeals, pushing the speakerphone button.

 _'_ _Please tell me you've already seen the news.'_ Quinn grunts out, not sure how she's always the one who ends up in this position. She's in a crappy mood, especially since she got blindsided on a stupid ass radio show. Why the hell her producers thought the cross promotion would be a good idea was _already_ something she was prepared to raise hell over.

Brittany frowns and glances at Santana who shrugs. "What news? Oh god does Charlie have another sex tape out?"

 _'_ _No, some_ idiot _decided to film in the locker room and it got leaked. Mike's in it and Charlie says some shitty things, but I don't think he knew he was being recorded—'_

"Which _moron_ broke the code? And why is this news? It's a locker room they aren't talking about what books they've read recently." Santana interrupts. "Surprise, a bunch of athletes said derogatory things about women in the locker room, yes I know what goes on in there. Charlie painted a picture and as long as he's not talking about our sex life I _really_ don't care."

' _Well, he was talking about you—not about your sex life and Mike was talking about some girl that he's—'_

"He _what_?" Brittany sat up. "Is he cheating on me? I _knew_ it."

"No you moron, he was probably talking _about_ you." Santana snaps. She's a little sympathetic, after all she knows what it feels like to be the center of a media spectacle through no fault of her own. But the fact that Quinn had called Brittany meant that it was Charlie who had yet again made a mess of things. "What'd he say Quinn?"

 _'_ _Uh—'_

"What. Did. He. Say?"

 _'_ _I'm sending you the link to the video.'_ Quinn allows instead. ' _Just called to let you know, I've got to get to the studio. Talk to you guys later_.'

Wordlessly, Santana puts CJ in his high chair, he probably wouldn't pay attention when there was food in front of him unless Little Einstein was on. "Alright then, let's see what I'm inevitably going to be grilled on."

"Do you think that's the best idea? Maybe—"

Santana took Brittany's phone from her and pressed the link that Quinn had sent. The video immediately starting to load. "I'm not going to be _mad_ at him, it was a private conversation and some idiot recorded him without knowing and posted it. I just need to know so I can control the narrative."

Brittany bit her lip, Santana probably knew how to handle this better than she did and if he had cheated on her Charlie would have probably given her the heads up. He could do whatever he wanted, especially with stuff like that. "Okay—ooh there's Mike."

' _Man, you should have seen her, fucking sucking on my dick like it was fucking candy. She was a fucking cum dumpster, bitch thinks I'm going to make her my wife or some shit. I'm already engaged to a fucking classy lady. You know what they say, you want a classy lady but a freak in the sheets.'_

Santana raised a brow, that was most definitely Anthony Rashad, whatever Charlie had said was probably worse than that. He wasn't nearly as big a star as Charlie was but he was a decent enough player that most people in Cleveland knew his name.

' _Speaking of fucking cum dumps, what about that girl Mike was with last night, she was definitely thirsty for Chang. Probably was terrified that one of our dicks would fucking ruin her.'_

Santana raised a brow and turned to look over at Brittany as the camera wheeled around to Mike, catching a bit of his ass as he pulled on some boxers. She recognized the voice, he had been at Max's party, definitely the newest rookie on the team. Jake Puckerman, she almost felt sorry for him. He was only twenty and this little shit show was going to haunt him. "Is what they say about Asian men true?"

"No! Mike's perfectly fine, it's more than enough for me." Brittany huffed puffing out her cheeks. He really was fine and more importantly he knew how to use it.

Mike sighed turning to Jake in the video, _'It wasn't like that.'_

Charlie enters the frame, walking between Mike as the camera's focus and whoever is recording this. He's not wearing anything more than a towel and clearly doesn't care about this conversation, ' _It better not have been like that since you're banging Fabray's sister too.'_ The camera jostles for a second and turns to look at Charlie who is glaring at the man in question. ' _No disrespect. But if there is anyone who is king of the easy pussy and banging fucking thirsty-ass women, it's you. What's the secret?'_

Santana leans forward as Charlie shakes his head and opens his mouth to say something. This conversation could go a million ways.

 _'_ _The secret is that easy pussy isn't worth it.'_ Charlie says after a moment as he grabs his shorts and boxers and pulls them on, letting his towel fall to the ground. There's a flash of his dick, judging from the pixelation.

' _Come on, you've got to have been living it up since your divorce aren't you banging that Dani chick_? _Fuck tell us how that celebrity pussy tastes man—is she a fucking freak—you know thirsty for your cock._ '

 _'_ _The last pussy I was in was my ex-wifes.'_

Some of the guys laugh and Santana ignores Brittany's searching look. It's by far not the worst thing he could have said. And depending when this was taken the last person who she had been intimate was with him.

' _No fucking way, you two are still doing it?'_

 _'_ _None of your fucking business. Look, you want my fucking opinion? Best pussy in the world is your partner's pussy. All that easy pussy? You're just going to get yourself into trouble. I'm a fucking cautionary tale to all you fucking assholes. You fuck with a pussy that doesn't belong to your wife and next thing you know you get kicked out of your house, you get handed divorce papers and cause of what we do no judge in their right fucking mind is going to award you with fucking custody. Plus she sells all your shit cause she's sort of a bitch. So you're stuck paying child support, and alimony and you get to see your fucking wife with some other fucking dickhead and you can't do shit about it. Cause you don't want a restraining order even though you still fucking love her. Moral of the story? Don't fuck easy pussy. Earn that shit.'_

The video cuts off and Brittany looks at Santana, "I mean it wasn't that bad—but you heard them, Mike saw some _girl_!"

"Mike isn't a dipshit, like those other guys. If only because he knows that fucking with you will have his ass shipped to fucking Milwaukie, or worse Utah, or _Canada_." Santana shuddered and looked over at CJ who seemed to be happily stuffing more cereal into his mouth. The language wasn't something that she wanted repeated so him not paying attention was a god send. Now, the real question was how was she going to sit the kids down and explain it.

"Don't be mad at him." Brittany interrupts Santana's internal monologue. "He hasn't slept with a girl in years according to this video."

"We don't know when that video was taken, it was probably months ago." Santana dismisses with a wave of her hand. "I _know_ he's at least gotten some action since the divorce."

"Oh?"

"Not like _that_. The asshole left his perfume soaked boxers all over his apartment." Santana lies. She doesn't _know_ that but she needed to focus on one problem at a time, _not_ on Brittany's attempt to push them back together. Brittany wasn't exactly subtle and predicting her reactions was pretty easy when all she had to do was imagine what Bela would do and plan accordingly. It was scarily accurate. "Maybe I should release a statement on twitter."

"Santana—he didn't know he was being recorded and it wasn't even that bad! Mike might be cheating on me and you two are already divorced. We need to focus on the _real_ problem. _Me._ "

"Your _boyfriend_ isn't cheating on you. You're fine Brittany. And I'm not going to write anything negative. I'm just going to call him an idiot, and mention how after they mess up they always come back running. Maybe I'll throw in a hashtag and direct it at Charlie."

"That's _cool_ but what about _me_! What am I going to do about Mike!"

"Hey Aunt Brittany," Max yawned as he stumbled into the kitchen rubbing his eye. "Is Mike coming?"

"No! I never want to see him again!" Brittany huffed. "He was getting naked with—"

"Brittany." Santana snaps at her as Max's eyes widen. "Ignore her. She doesn't know anything for a fact. Also avoid ESPN."

"Dad got in trouble again?" Max shook his head.

"Yes. Well—someone recorded a private conversation in the locker room and he said a few bad words, ignore it. I'm not mad at him, and you shouldn't be upset with him either."

"Are you not mad at him because you two had sex? Bela said she heard you."

"Wait! What?" Brittany turned to Santana staring at her. "When did this happen?"

Max reached for some of CJ's cereal only for his brother to bang on his hands. He didn't even notice the acidic look his mom was giving him as he continued to talk. "When we went camping. I thought they were fighting but they said they weren't and when I went to tell Bela about the two of them making up she said that they were having sex and I ruined it."

"You didn't _ruin_ anything." Santana assures him. "We _weren't_ having sex." She tells Brittany before her sister-in-law can push this any further.

"Bela said you guys were going to get back together." Max munches, his mouth full of semi-masticated cereal chunks.

"Really? What else did Bela say?" Brittany presses.

"Okay. _Look_. Your father is a dork, he's the biggest dork that I've ever met. Occasionally, rarely, it happens once in a blue moon, he is very—friendly."

Brittany arches her brow. "Friendly? That's what you're going with?"

Santana shoots Brittany a glare and Brittany merely laughs in return. "Yes. We're just _friendly_."

Max stared at his mom like she had lost her mind, "Dad's _always_ friendly. It's part of his job, remember?"

Brittany snorted as Santana stuttered at being caught. "I think what your mom means is that occasionally my brother can be pretty charming. And sometimes your mom finds him very—irresistible because she thinks he's super-hot."

"Oh." Max frowned. "Bela says I'm a dork all the time—does that mean I'm going to be just like dad when I grow up?"

"Okay, that's enough. Max, sweetie, your father and I are not getting back together. Your father and I—things are not okay between us, but there are times when it's very easy to forget that things aren't okay. This was one of those times. It won't happen again."

" _Bullshit_ ," Brittany sneezes.

Santana rolls her eyes. She does _not_ need this on top of everything else.

Max deflates a little, clearly disappointed. "Oh. Did I ruin it?" He bites his lip somewhat nervously. His parents had been happy and he hasn't seen his dad since they went camping.

"Maxie, no. You didn't ruin anything between your father and I, we're getting along so much better.

"Are you lying?" Max narrows his eyes at his mother suspiciously before swallowing heavily. "I did ruin it."

Santana groans. _Fuck_ , could her kids be any more like her? Why couldn't they be like her ex-husband. Her sweet slightly socially dim ex-husband. "We decided we should be friends."

"That's not what you said on the balcony." Bela sang as she entered the kitchen.

"For fucks sake Bela! Stop being a little shit!" Santana snaps at her daughter.

"No." Bela responds grinning.

Brittany looked between Bela and Santana, before humming and wrapping her arm around her niece. "So tell me everything Bela, don't leave out _any_ off the details. I'll take you to Ihop! We'll eat all the bacon we can manage."

"Hey what about us!" Max frowned.

Brittany glances at him and then reaches for Santana's purse pulling out some money, she grins at the two hundred dollar bills. "Right, all you can eat bacon on your mom!"

"Brittany that's—"

"AWESOME! Come on CJ we're going to eat so much bacon today!" Max said pulling his brother free. "Let's go get dressed.

Santana twitched, of all the times for Charlie to be too busy to deal with his children, this had to be the worst. She had given him a pass for playoffs but if Bela was going to be an all-knowing little shit, then the kids were going to have to deal with their father being highly irritable. That would teach them. She puffs out her cheek, these were the times she missed him the most.


	37. Chapter 37

Charlie eyed Sue who had been pacing back and forth in front of him for the past ten minutes, he hadn't said a word, she was an angry shade of red and he didn't want to piss her off any more than she was already pissed off by saying something. As far as he was concerned he hadn't even really done anything wrong. He had been recorded having a private conversation while _naked_. If anyone should be enraged, it was him. He sighs, "I thought it was good advice."

Sue stopped pacing and turned to him, watching as he flashes her that dumb grin of his. She couldn't believe that anyone found that smile on his face to be charming, it wasn't the worse one that she had seen but it certainly wasn't the best. "You called your ex-wife a _bitch_ , the mother of your children a _bitch_ and it was caught on video. You referred to women as pussy's—given your history, regardless of whether you're _innocent_ or not there is a perception that you're a misogynist."

"I don't _hate_ women. I wasn't the one that referred to them as cum dumpsters, or bragged about all the women I've slept with. I told them to keep it in their pants. As for my comment about Santana, she is a bitch. This isn't even up for debate; she knows she's a bitch. She calls herself a bitch. It's the reason I love her. It's a term of endearment."

"I _highly_ doubt that." Sue snaps at him. "The team wants an apology—"

"Then have them talk to Jake, he's the little shit that _recorded me_ naked and let that shit get leaked. The guys are _fucking_ pissed. Why the hell should I apologize for a private conversation in a guy's locker room? I didn't say anything wrong. Yeah fine I'll apologize for referring to women as pussy's but other than that, nothing I said was particularly wrong. I'm _straight_ , of course I'm going to talk to women. I imagine you've talked about men in unflattering terms before, like we're just pieces of meat? If I was gay, it'd be the exact same thing, Doesn't matter if you're male or female, gay or straight or somewhere in between, if you're _rich_ then you're always going to wonder. Do they love me for me? Or just the money? Either way bottom line is that I don't fucking hate women. I have a daughter, and I love my ex-wife."

"Doesn't mean you aren't a misogynist asshole. Besides who the fuck cares what _you_ think. It's what your sponsor's think and you're already a drama magnet." Sue sighs. At Charlie's furrowed brow she rolls her eyes, unsurprised that she has to dumb it down for him. "Look, let me spell it out for you. Sponsors don't like drama, _especially_ drama that makes them look bad. Their star athlete making anti-feminist comments? That sure as hell counts. It makes them skittish. It's a good thing they don't know about your torn labrum."

Charlie steps back and shakes his head. "Fine. Whatever. I'll apologize."

"That's a _start_." Sue almost wants to commend him for offering to do the very _least_ difficult thing to fix this, but they need to get ahead of this. "You're going to need to get your ex-wife on your side to show people that there are no hard feelings between the two of you. It can't feel forced or like a PR stunt, we're _really_ going to have to get a couple of candid shots—family moments."

Charlie pulls out his phone and finds the tweet he was looking for. _'Ladies, isn't it real? After they screw up they always come back. 3 u 2 Charlie_74Fabray' #CharlieFabray'_ Charlie looks up at Sue. "Pretty sure she's already on my side."

Sue raised a brow for a moment. It wasn't just calling Santana a bitch that had been problematic with what he had said in the video. He had, inadvertently, called her a gold digger. Or at the very least pointed out that Santana was vindictive as hell. It wouldn't be something that was simply brushed under the rug like that. She had seen them argue if only briefly, and Santana's reaction was _not_ the one of someone who still found her ex-husband irritating as hell. "When did you two start sleeping together again?"

"We aren't."

Sue raises her eyebrow. "Bullshit."

Charlie rubbed his temples, he had a game later tonight and trying to explain his sex life to Sue was not how he wanted to be spending the day of the first game of the playoffs. "We _aren't_ having sex. She's still dating some douchebag. We had sex, _once_. Recently. Sort of."

"How do you _sort_ of have sex?" Sue asks crinkling her nose, she didn't really want to know. But this story was weird and she needed to see what she needed to do to guarantee another championship ring. The team had rested Charlie for the last five games of the regular season. Getting his personal life in order was something she would do if she absolutely had to.

"Well, we were doing it when Max sort of walked in on us. She hasn't really said anything to me since then. I can only imagine I said something to piss her off. I planned to deal with it _after_ playoffs."

"Clearly _that_ has been a terrible idea." She shakes her head in disbelief. "Almost as bad as letting that moron video record you, making you a PR nightmare for the _third_ time." If he were any less connected or famous, then she probably would have dropped him as a client.

"I didn't think anyone was recording me. It's a fucking locker room, I have an expectation of relative privacy," Charlie grumbles. "Also, if Santana was pissed at me she, like you, would be here banging on my door and letting the whole world know she was pissed at me. Except she _knows_ what goes on and what is said in locker rooms, I was honest about that at least. We had an agreement years ago that I don't talk about our sex-life in the locker room. I _didn't_. I just said I missed being with her. Which I do."

Sue rolled her eyes, he was such a sap. "Fine, you'll invite her and your family to the game tonight, it will help your image if she's there—"

"With the exception of last year—and while we were getting divorced, when I was still in LA and they were in Cleveland, it's a family tradition to come to the first game of playoffs. So she'll be there tonight. _Probably_." Charlie added the last part. He could call and find out, but Mike had mentioned that Brittany was going to be in town and the last thing he needed was that crazy on top of everything else. He was supposed to be a _leader_ on the team, a veteran and right now the team was in disarray right at the start of playoffs. He had a feeling tonight was going to be a disaster. Charlie exhales, "I'll give the apology in the press conference after the game. A real apology, and then I'm done with that topic until the end of playoffs. I want at least _three_ rings and I only have one so far. When I die, the kids can fight over which year they get but they'll each have one."

Sue rolled her eyes. "I'll have some PR people craft you an apology and I'll give it to you right before the press conference so look for me." Sue pinches the bridge of her nose and studies Charlie for a moment. "I also suggest making sure that you _win_ this game. If you want this story to die, make sure you win this game."

"Trust me, I have every plan to." Charlie grumbled, though he had no idea how with the entire team freezing Jake out. Everyone was pointing fingers and it was just a mess. He scratches his eyebrow and stands up, "Look I have a masseuse coming in about half an hour and I need to get my mind into it. So let me go do my thing and I'll let you do yours." He had a championship to win.

~O~

"Yeah, I know your dad's losing CJ, no need to get all fidgety," Santana mumbled kissing the top of CJ's head as her son kicked and began to fidget his face scrunching up as he spat out his pacifier. The game was an epic disaster and the Cav's were down twenty. This was in no small part due to the unforced errors and turnovers. Charlie had lost before but he looked absolutely incensed at how listless his teammates were playing. He was already up to five turnovers because no one was receiving his passes properly and he had verbally lashed out Mike after he had missed an easy fast break lay-up. The home-crowd fans had already started to leave expecting this to turn into a blow-out.

" _Hungy_." CJ whined squirming to get free. " _Hungy_."

Bela reached over to rub his tummy, he usually settled down after that but he had spent most of the day playing with their aunt Brittany, so it was no wonder he was a bit irritated. He hadn't had his nap today despite their mom's best attempts to put him down for his usual nap. "Max, pass us CJ's diaper bag. I helped mom put some snacks inside for him."

Max tore his eyes off the cheerleaders and the mascot and looked around for a moment, "Uh, what bag?"

Santana turned to look at Brittany beside her and arched a brow. "Britt, I asked you to do one thing and that was grab his diaper bag." Santana groaned. Now she would have to go to a concession stand and buy some unhealthy snack for her son, and she was trying to cut back on all his unhealthy food. CJ was getting a bit on the heavy side for someone in his age group and his pediatrician had suggested less junk food. Today had been an expensive day with Brittany basically taking the kids out for a fun filled gastric tour of the city.

Brittany smiles sheepishly. She had been too distracted texting Mike to remember. "Sorry. Let me pay?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Santana rolls her eyes. Making Brittany pay for snacks will only ensure that Brittany didn't have enough money to cover next month's rent or some other vitally important bill.

"Are you getting snacks? I need nachos." Bela rubs CJ's belly again.

Santana plucks her son from Bela's arms and deposits him on Brittany's lap. "Watch him while we go get something."

Brittany nods, glad that she can stay and ogle Mike without anyone noticing.

"You are going to have to come with me." Santana tells Bela, gesturing for her to stand.

Bela groans. She should have seen that coming. "Fine."

"I want nachos too," Max calls out a frown on his face, today was a disaster and he was angry at Jake for ruining what should be an easy win for his dad's team.

"Anything else your highness?" Santana asked, but wisely Max decides to leave it alone. She wasn't going to balance a whole tray of food for her family by herself. "Max keep an eye out for your brother." She didn't want to say she didn't trust Brittany—but she didn't trust Brittany and CJ was really being fussy. She shook her head and walked to go get some concessions with her daughter, climbing up the stairs. Hopefully there wasn't an article on some blog site about how she was abandoning Charlie or something equally ridiculous.

Brittany waited until Santana was gone before putting CJ in the seat beside her, she didn't want to accidentally drop him and he seemed to settle for a moment, as she pushed his pacifier back in his mouth. "Your mom will be back soon with food," Brittany grins when CJ smiles at this. She glances over at Max and taps his knee, "So they can still win right? Like it's not _that_ bad right they just need to make twenty—baskets?"

Max puffed out his cheeks and stared at his aunt Brittany, she was _really_ bad at this and it didn't even make any sense, she was dating Mike. His mom had said that Mike was probably going to be his uncle one day. Which would be _super_ cool. "No they only need ten baskets, each basket is worth two points. Except when you're outside on the three-point line or further, then you get three points. You get one point—"

"The three-point line? That?" She points to the line at half-court and Max face-palms.

"No. _That_." He points to the arch "What do you and Mike talk about? You're supposed to be dating."

Brittany bites her lip; they certainly didn't talk about basketball. In fact, there wasn't much talking most of the time. Though she was sure that she couldn't inform her nephew of what she actually did. "We talk about adult things—"

"Oh, sex." Max shakes his head as the buzzer goes off to start the next quarter. Adults were weird, there were a million more interesting things to talk about then getting naked with the people you liked. Apparently he wasn't allowed to do it, he had been about to do it at school and had gotten in trouble.

"Not just that, you know—what your mom and dad talk about."

"They don't talk to each other anymore, except when they're in the same room and then they sneak off to be weird. Dad can still win this, they just need to get in the zone."

"Is he playing well? He looks super angry? You know I never watched any of his games, I did however make out with—" Brittany pauses and looks at Max. "Never mind, oh look there's Mike! Go _Mike!"_ Brittany cheers loudly as the action starts. The play doesn't last long as the ball gets fumbled out of bounds and bounces away. "You've got this!" Brittany calls not noting that her youngest nephew had slid off his chair and had managed to escape.

Max was about to respond when he notices some toddler on the court wearing his dad's jersey toddling towards the players who were waiting for the action to start. He scowls and rolls his eyes. People should know better than to let _babies_ just run onto the court like that. "You'd never do something like that, right—" His eyes widen as he glances to where CJ had _just_ been sitting five minutes ago and feels his blood turn to ice.

His mom was going to kill them. _Worse_ this was probably going to end up on Sports Center. "Aunt Britt, _CJ_!" Max hisses at his favorite aunt who immediately looks at where she had put CJ and her eyes widen comically.

" _Fuck_." Brittany swallows, Santana was going to _kill_ her. At least the players seem to be aware of the situation and are quickly jumping out of the way for CJ who was heading straight for Charlie who was glaring at the basketball. "Fuck," she scrambles out of her seat and begins to head for the court only to have a security guard stop her. Where were they when CJ had gotten onto the court? "That's my _nephew_ ," she explains quickly pointing at CJ who had finally made it to his dad only to trip and fall at Charlie's feet. Almost immediately he made a face as he spat out his pacifier as tears welled up in his eyes and he held his arms out for his dad to pick him up.

" _Daddy_!" CJ whined as he began to cry. " _Daddy_! _Daddy_ Up!"

Charlie snaps around in shock. "CJ. What are you doing here?" He lifts CJ up on his hip like he weighs nothing, ignoring the ref's whistles. He's already going to get a fine for this but he's more focused on his teary-eyed son.

"Daddy, _hungy_."

Charlie's shock melts into a proud grin. _Daddy_. Damn right he was the Daddy. "Anybody got a hotdog?" Charlie calls to the seats closest to him. There's some laughter and Charlie raises a brow, he hadn't been joking. "Where's mommy?" Charlie asks as CJ clings to him, as he looks around for his ex-wife. He makes a face when he sees Brittany waving at him pitifully, a sheepish smile on her face and shakes his head glancing at Mike. "No kids for you then," he says as Mike snorts in amusement.

CJ kicks a bit and grabs his father's beard forcing Charlie to look at him. " _Hungy_."

"Yeah, yeah I heard you," Charlie nuzzles his son his eyes flicking through the crowd for a moment as he sees his daughter carrying two trays of nachos. Santana close behind her carrying a bag of drinks and food from the concession stand. "Look CJ food!" Charlie points to his daughter and he's aware that they are both now on the jumbotron when Bela stops and stares for a moment and then shoots him one of Santana's patented death glares.

"Za! Za!" CJ looks up at Charlie and hands over his pacifier.

Charlie laughs along with his teammates who slap his back, as he heads towards Santana who looks absolutely mortified as she reaches for CJ. Charlie can't help but wink at her. "Lesson of the day? Don't trust Brittany to babysit for ten minutes"

Santana felt CJ clinging to her now bored with his father as he tried to reach for the food in Bela's arms. "Sorry," she mumbles to him.

Charlie ruffles CJ's head and smiles at her, "He's fine, I think we needed that."

Santana nods quickly, and nods her head to the score. "Get your shit together and win alright? I don't want to hear Max bitching for the next three weeks about this."

Charlie gives her a mock salute before heading back to the court. The mood is lighter now, maybe now they could actually play as a team.

"Max, Brittany you are both _so_ grounded."

Max nods, well aware he's getting off easy.

"You can't ground me." Brittany points out, stealing one of the plates of nachos from Bela's arms.

"Fine, then I'm going to kill you." Santana grounds out. Her family just couldn't stay out of the limelight, and she had no idea what she was going to do about it. She just wanted to stay out of the public eye, was it that hard to ask for?

Brittany winces. "Maybe I'd rather be grounded."

~O~

Charlie settles into his seat for the post-game press conference. He has gotten used to these over the years but this is probably his least favorite part of the job. Sue's prepped him for every possible question but he's hoping that the last quarter will be the only thing on anyone's mind.

"How does it feel to have a career high and end the game with a half-court buzzer beater?"

"It's a great way to start the playoffs." Charlie jokes and the others in the room laugh. But Charlie's played this game for a while and knows they're all looking for the right soundbites. He scratches his chin thoughtfully. "No, seriously it's such an honor to be able to play with my teammates. We struggled for the first three quarters and sometimes it just takes a bit for the cogs to work themselves out."

"Would you say that the leaked locker room video is one of those cogs?" Someone follows up.

Charlie should have worded it more carefully, but it's better to just face these things head on. "We're all professionals on this team, despite what the video might say. The guys have given Jake a rough time, but everyone on this team is committed to bringing home a championship. I know that we're all human and we may let our egos and our pride get in the way of that. I know I certainly did."

"So you're saying you forgive Jake?"

Charlie flashes the reporter a smile, like hell he was going to forgive that little shit. "I'm saying that right now we don't have time to be angry. We have a championship to win and that's what we should all be focused on. That being said, about the video. I'd like to apologize to everyone, including my ex-wife. I said some things that I shouldn't have, and for that I am sorry. As someone reminded me I have a daughter and sisters and I would loathe for anybody to talk about her in the terms I used to describe women in general. As my ex-wife can attest to, I'm a bit thick sometimes."

"Speaking of ex-wives, that was an interesting interruption today when your son ran to you on the court. What was that about?"

Charlie laughs. "Honestly from what I can gather, his bag was forgotten in the car and CJ got hungry. Which was why Santana left to go get him something to eat. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, CJ makes sure he does whatever it takes to get food. He's not yet three, but I can promise it won't happen again—" Charlie blinks when the reporter shakes his head.

"Well I was hoping you would keep your good luck charm and make him into the new mascot."

Charlie laughs, at the idea. "I'm sure he'd love being the center of attention but unfortunately most of our games are past his bedtime. Next question?" Charlie asked turning to another reporter, he caught Sue giving him the thumbs up in the corner of his eye and rubbed his beard.


	38. Chapter 38

**AN: Thank you for letting me know that I ended up reposting a chapter. Unfortunately for me, I realized that I ended up skipping a chapter. Which is why it got repeated, there was a chapter in front of it. So Chapter, 36, 37, 38 are now in order. I hope. Thank you for everyone letting me know and all the PMs.**

* * *

Santana frowns when she hears the doorbell ring the next day. Brittany was spending the day with Mike and the kids are with Tina and she's finally catching up on everything she needed to review from Roz. She scratches her head and puts down her paperwork, quickly making her way to the front door with every intention of telling whoever it is to go away so that she can finish everything before the kids get back. She tries not to cringe when she looks through the window to see Sebastian waiting expectantly on the front porch. "Sebastian?"

"I saw the video." Sebastian folds his arms over his chest.

Santana blows out her breath. "Which _one_?" Santana shakes her head. "My family has been in the media _a lot_ these days. It's like we're attention whores." Santana shook her head. "Though I have to admit CJ's foray in front of the camera is perfect for his first girlfriend and embarrassing the shit out of him when he's older. I suddenly understand why parents enjoyed embarrassing me so much."

"Well I saw that. It was actually rather adorable. But I meant Charlie's shitty video."

"Oh." Santana shrugs. "That's probably the least offensive thing he could have said, it just got blown out of proportion."

"Blown out of proportion? He basically called you a _gold digger_ and he _did_ call you a bitch. How can you be okay with that?" Sebastian looks at her in utter disbelief. He had expected her to be angry, in fact he had avoided her yesterday because he had assumed that she would be enraged. He _definitely_ hadn't expected her to be downright dismissive about it.

"It was the locker room. Jake shouldn't have recorded it, and it was taken out of context."

"I still don't get how you're okay with this. I mean from everything I've seen your husband is a Class One Jackass. He cheats on you, implies you're the gold digger, let's not even begin to talk about how he basically grabbed CJ away that one time. How can you _defend him_?"

"Because he's the father of my children. What other choice do I have?"

"You could petition for sole custody." Sebastian points out. "You can't tell me _that_ neanderthal is actually a decent role model for those kids. You have other people to think of than just you."

"Except for the fact that my kids will hate me. Especially Max, and even though Bela finds him to be the bane of her existence and an embarrassment, she'll loathe me as well. Then there is the unfortunate fact that this issue is the one thing that will _force_ him to go to war with me. He came to Cleveland not because he wanted to play for the Cav's, he was already on a playoff caliber team. Charlie hates being cold. He never really wanted to come back to Ohio after he left, but he did it because I took the kids to Ohio. Something that if he had chosen to fight me on he probably would have won. He's not like some jackass parent who only wants to use the kids as a tool to hurt me, he actually does love them. And no judge in Cleveland, let alone all of Ohio is going to grant me sole custody of those kids while Charlie's attempting to bring a championship to Cleveland. Do you really think they're going to award me custody for something he said in a locker room while he was being secretly recorded. He is their father, and yes he can be a bit idiotic sometimes but that doesn't change the fact that he is a good dad."

"He had a sex tape that was leaked to the entire world."

"And how exactly does that make him a bad father? Yeah, it makes him a shitty human being and a terrible husband, but that's why I divorced him. Regardless, Charlie is the kid's father and I'm not going to throw some fit over something that probably wouldn't even be admissible in a custody hearing."

"Is this because you aren't over him?" Sebastian narrows his eyes and folds his arms over his chest.

Santana's jaw drops in shock. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm _talking_ about how you're completely unwilling to move on." He shakes his head. "I knew that it was risky, getting involved with a woman who had kids. But you _insisted_ you were over him."

"He's the _father_ of my children. What you're suggesting is that I cut him out of my life completely and vindictively cut him out of my children's lives? I already did the vindictive thing, I sold all his shit including his massive shoe collection, all of his cars, and most of his stuff. Sold it, gave it to charity, auctioned it off for charity. That was _two_ years ago. I'm not going to keep punishing him for it, especially not when it affects my kids. They are picking up on that tension and I don't want to poison the well, so we're attempting to be friends." She may be failing and crossing the line occasionally but she knew better.

"Well maybe I'm not comfortable with that." Sebastian declares.

Santana quirks her brow. "Well maybe _that_ doesn't quite hold too much weight."

"Look, you're hot and I—" He clears his throat. "I think this just isn't working. It's not you, it's—"

"Oh what a crock of shit." Santana interrupts him. Is this what it feels like? She's never been broken up with before but if this is the way it worked then no _wonder_ people wrote depressing songs about it. She didn't even _love_ Sebastian. The sex was decent and he was occasionally fun to be around but that was it. "If you're going to break up with me then just fucking say it without all the fake platitudes."

"Fine. It's not me, it's you. You're still not over your loser ex-husband and I'm just not comfortable being your backup. I'm better than that and I deserve more than that."

Santana frowned, Charlie wasn't some dead-beat, he also wasn't a loser. He was definitely an idiot. "Alright, Now I think you _got to_ go Sebastian. I've got _shit_ to do and this is wasting my time. It's been fun," Santana responded clearly, as she opened the door for him and motioned for him to get the hell out of her house.

Sebastian shot her an acidic look but he did as he was told marching out of the house with his head held high. He didn't deserve this.

Santana slams the door after him. She's not sure exactly how she feels. Sad? Irritated? Upset? She's definitely pissed off more than anything and needs to blow off steam before she explodes. She mentally checks through the list of people she can call, either to yell at or to fuck it out with only to realize that the list is woefully small. Fuck it. She grabs her purse and keys aware that there's one person she can always take her anger out on without fail.

~O~

Charlie groaned feeling that twinge in his shoulder when he reached for his tablet. He _truly_ hoped that it wasn't Brittany come to—well be herself. He was definitely going to have a long discussion with Santana about curbing Brittany's access to his kids, or at least CJ for now. His youngest son was _clearly_ too much for Brittany to handle. It almost made him puff out his chest in pride as he fumbled with the tablet checking to see who was outside his door. He groans when he sees Santana standing there crossing her arms over her chest. It was going to be _one_ of those days. He was too tired to deal with Santana; practice had been brutal after they had nearly lost. At least no one had suggested team building. He didn't want to spend time around his teammates at this point he barely liked his teammates. He sighs and pushes the button to let Santana enter his apartment. He had seriously thought that Santana wasn't pissed about the video but clearly she had just been covering him. "Look Santana, I'm sorry. I didn't _know_ that I was being recorded."

"Yeah, well maybe you should record that as the standard greeting for your voicemail, because that excuse is getting old."

"Sue already ripped me a new one for the video, can't this wait a week? Maybe after playoffs, a lot of shit is happening after playoffs. I'll put you in line to be number one to yell at me for something I did alright?" After his surgery he'd be on painkillers so he probably wouldn't remember anything anyway.

"No this can't _wait_ because for every single one of your fuckups just makes _my_ life more difficult."

Charlie sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'm _sorry_ Santana for calling you a bitch in the locker room and using the term pussy to refer to women. I am also sorry for bringing up the divorce in the locker room, I thought it was okay, clearly it wasn't. So however it affected you I'm _sorry_."

"Sebastian broke up with me."

"Oh." Charlie smirks. "Never mind, I'm not that sorry. He was a putz anyway."

"Yeah, well it sucks so, thanks for the support." She scoffs. She's not sure why she's here, he's just the easiest target.

Charlie sighs and crinkles his nose before getting up and heading to his kitchen. He opens the top shelf with a bit of ease, knowing that he's currently the only one tall enough to reach it without help and studies the alcohol carefully before grabbing a bottle of vodka and a shot glass. "I don't have any ice cream," Charlie says as he puts the shot glass down and pours Santana a drink pushing the shot glass towards her.

Santana stares at the shot glass for a moment taking a seat on one of the bar stools at his island and frowns. "I _drove_ here, and Tina is ferrying the kids around to all their activities today. The last thing I need is Bela making some snide comments about me being an alcoholic."

"Bela will make snide comments regardless, she's basically a miniature you. It's one shot, Santana."

"You should have let me spank her. I got spanked."

Charlie rolled his eyes, Santana was clearly in the mood to blame him for everything that was wrong in her life. Santana had been the one to announce that they weren't spanking their kids, which was fine with him because Bela had been adorable and he hadn't wanted to harm a hair on her head. "Clearly that worked out for your parents," Charlie drawled, he clears his throat and ducks to hide his smile when Santana glares at him. He taps the shot glass and watches as Santana picks it up and drains it.

"I can't believe he _dumped me_ ," Santana sneers grabbing the bottle of vodka and pouring herself another shot.

"Uh—" Charlie begins; he knows better than to reach for it when Santana's in one of her moods. He definitely hadn't thought this through.

"Even you didn't have the fucking balls to dump me," Santana snaps at him. It was fucking humiliating to be dumped, especially when she had planned to dump him.

"Yes, well I _liked_ my balls attached to my body," Charlie muttered heading to his fridge and grabbing two gatorades and pre-prepared meal. He grabs the least offensive one he can find and pushes a gatorade towards Santana as he opens a drawer and grabs a fork before popping open the top of his lunch.

Santana pours herself another shot and drinks it down quickly. If she's already going to have to deal with Bela's snarky comments about alcoholism, she's going to make sure that she is drunk enough to handle it. "I just don't get it."

Charlie paused and stared at the meal before opening the microwave and tossing it in. "I know I'm going to regret asking but you just don't get what?"

"What the fuck is so wrong with every man I sleep with? Were they all dicks before they took their pants off? Or is that something that just comes as part of the Santana Lopez special?" She shakes her head angrily.

Charlie scratches the back of his head and watches the time on the microwave tick down. How was he supposed to answer that? "Maybe, it's just that they're idiots," he says finally.

"Well then I _definitely_ have a type." Santana mutters pouring herself another drink. "I should have dumped his sorry ass sooner."

Charlie hesitated as the microwave dinged, torn between taking the bottle from Santana or letting her become further intoxicated. He grimaces as Santana simply takes another shot. He should have gone out and bought her ice cream. "Uh—Santana?"

"Shut up, I'm drinking." She mutters, glaring at him with a force that he hadn't seen in awhile.

"Right." He blows out a breath.

"But the sex was decent and he didn't seem to want _anymore_ than I could give him. He didn't even mind that I had _three_ kids, and that my body is ruined!"

"Your body isn't—"

"I have fucking _stretch_ marks. And I _know_ I'm not as tight down there as I once was, cause all your children were fat babies." She goes to pour herself another shot only to have Charlie pick up the bottle.

"I think you've probably had enough."

"Babies? Yes. Definitely. I've definitely had enough, but give me back my booze." She narrows her eyes at him

"This is _my_ booze," Charlie reminds her flatly.

"Please, it's not even that _good_." Santana scoffs, using Charlie's offense as a distraction in order to grab the bottle back out of his hand. It tasted like fucking water, and now that she was drinking she just wanted to be blackout drunk.

Charlie studies Santana for a moment before grabbing her purse and pulling the keys out of it. She was clearly inebriated which meant that if he took his eyes off her for a moment, she'd probably do something stupid. It was better to be safe than sorry. "Look, Santana, I'm sorry that you dated another asshole I really am, but what about the kids?"

"You're their father, figure it out. Or call Brittany, she owes me a favor."

Charlie frowns. He doesn't trust Brittany any further than he can throw her and leaving her with the kids for the night seems like a terrible idea. "Alright let me just call—" Charlie trailed off as he watched Santana stripping down for a moment. "Oh boy." Stages of drunk Santana used to be something he was intimately familiar with, but it had been a while. Soon there would be water works and eventually some dry heaving, and then she'd get horny and attempt to get him naked but she generally fell asleep soon after. He had definitely not thought this through. He exhales, he was an adult he could handle this. This and the kids. And feeding the kids. And making sure that they did their homework, and changing CJ. Shit.


	39. Chapter 39

Santana Lopez groaned, pulling the blankets above her head as a stray light hit her face. She felt like shit, which was the mildest way that she could put it. Her mouth tasted like _ass_ , and her head was pounding like a jackhammer, and she really just wanted to stay on this comfortable bed that smelt like her ex-husband. She had no idea what had possessed her to drink that much, maybe it was a delayed reaction from when she had found out that Charlie had cheated on her. She hadn't had that much to drink since before Bela was born.

She shifts a bit on the bed, drinking with Charlie had been an epic mistake. Especially since she had always been a _light_ weight. She sighs and curls up some more, the bed was incredibly comfortable and it smelled nice and she really wanted to spend the rest of the evening in the bed before she had to go deal with her children. She scrunches up her face as she wiggles into the path of the sun again, before it hits her that it's probably _not_ late in the afternoon. It's _probably_ early Saturday morning and she had just _abandoned her_ children to get drunk with her _ex-husband_. She was currently _sleeping_ in her ex-husband's bed. She immediately pushes the blankets off her and immediately staggers out of his bed noting that the clothes that she had worn yesterday had already been laundered and were on the dresser. She glances down at herself, she was simply in a pair of Charlie's shorts and a spare jersey he had. What had she _done_ last night?

She shakes off the thoughts as she immediately makes a beeline to Charlie's bedroom door, opening it. She needed to find her—the sound of the television playing what she recognized as Little Einstein lowly, and the smell of bacon and pancakes and coffee immediately hit her. Her stomach flips at the idea, but she can hear Max talking a mile a minute which means that Charlie had brought them _here_. She immediately straightens herself out and heads towards the kitchen, stopping just out of Charlie's line of vision as she watched him talking to Bela.

"Come on Bela, I know that you know this. It's like my stats in basketball, now if I take twenty shots and only make ten of them what does that say about me?" Charlie asked tapping the math book.

"That you're inflating your shooting percentage?" Bela mutters under her breath.

"Ha-ha, you _wound me_ ," Charlie shakes his head.

"It _means_ that he's shooting fifty-percent! Right dad?" Max piped up helpfully as he ate some more bacon.

"I _knew_ that," Bela insists scowling at Max.

Santana tilts her head and bit her lip, Charlie had gotten all dressed up, wearing jeans and and Timberland boots and a blue flannel shirt, that hadn't been buttoned showing off the tight wife beater that he had underneath that clung to his body. She was about to say something when CJ got up with his plate and toddled over to where Charlie stood smacking his leg with the plate. Santana stares in horror, as she realizes that Charlie did the one thing that she had forbid him to do.

He had _dressed_ CJ in the _exact_ same outfit. Her son even had a bit of gel in his hair. He was wearing his little Timberland boots and had on some dark blue jeans and was wearing a blue flannel shirt.

"Dada, _hungy_."

"Right, more bacon coming right up," Charlie smiled at CJ who smiled pleased that his father was getting right to it. He reaches down and takes the plate from CJ and puts a few more slices of bacon on it and one small pancake before pouring a bit of maple syrup on it before taking CJ's hand and leading him back to the couch, wincing at the sticky hand prints and bits of food that are now messing up his coffee table.

"Oh, dear god what have you done to my _babies_?" Santana demanded staring at Max who had on the exact _same_ outfit. Her seven-year old looked like a _douche_. He even had his hair greased up in an attempt to—she imagined—look cool.

Charlie turns to look at Santana, as CJ gets settled and reaches for the bacon, "Oh, hey Santana. Want some breakfast?"

Santana turns to her daughter who is the only one who hadn't decided to follow the trend of wearing the exact same thing. "Why didn't you stop this?"

Bela rolled her eyes, "I'm _twelve_ , and you've spent the past year saying that I need to be nicer to Max, and if I didn't have anything nice to say then _not_ to say anything." Bela shook her head, of course her mom would blame her for her dad's crappy idea. Like it was _her_ fault. "That's why I just took pictures instead."

"You took—

"And posted them on Instagram."

Santana pinches her brow, trying to fight her crushing headache. The only thing that could be worse than having all of her boys dress up like some sort of publicity stunt was having proof of it.

"I think we look pretty cool right dad?" Max said with a pleased smile. This was totally the best day ever.

"Definitely." Charlie agrees with a shit eating grin. Santana _has_ to have a wicked hangover and there was no way he'd get away with this on any other day so he's going to make sure he makes the most of it.

"' _Cool_ ' isn't what I'd use to describe it," Santana mutters staring. Max had used far too much hair gel in his hair, and CJ didn't look adorable with his chubby cheeks, like he normally did. He looked like a miniaturized version of his father, especially as he shoved his fist into his mouth as he ate. "Please tell me you aren't going _out_ like that—"

"Well I was thinking we could go to the park together, I even got them little sunglasses—" Charlie began pulling out his own pair of shades so he could put them on.

Santana snorts despite herself. "Right, you know what you do that. I'm not going to say a word as people laugh at you. In fact, I'm going back to bed." Santana shook her head taking a step to Charlie's room before deciding that she'd rather have a few pieces of sourdough bread that Charlie insists upon when he's making breakfast. "Food first," she mutters grabbing the bag.

Max watches his mother for a moment confused as to how she even got here. "How'd you get in dad's apartment mom? Did you sneak in?"

"She was probably here last night, I mean she slept in dad's clothes," Bela throws in looking at her mother. Choosing not to turn to look at her father, knowing that he was probably wearing some ridiculous dollar store shades and she doesn't want to bust a gut laughing.

"Oh, dad and mom had sex again." Max nods grinning at his dad who drops the glasses on the ground.

"Uh-oh!" CJ says finally looking at his family. He pushes his plate away and crawls over to Charlie holding out his sticky hands, which now have the lovely addition of chewed up food and spit on them. " _Up_!"

Charlie blinked, and scooped up his son before carrying him to the sink so he could get CJ relatively clean, it never last long and his son was generally sticky. " _Max_. You're _seven_ what do you know about sex?"

"Well, that you get naked with mommy—but you weren't naked when I saw you in on the balcony."

Charlie's head whips towards Santana who is busy pouring herself some coffee, "Yes. This is a thing now."

"He's _seven_. I didn't even know that was until—"

"You were a _late_ bloomer. Very late." Santana reminds him. "You're going to need to sit him down for the talk soon, I'd rather it be sooner rather than later." Charlie made a face and Santana smirks, he probably thought he had a few more years. "Also, answer his question Charlie." If she was going to be harassed by her kids on whether she and Charlie had _done it_ , then Charlie needed to answer the same bloody questions.

"No, we didn't have sex Max—"

"Are you lying to me? Cause mom lied about it last time. She said you didn't but Bela _heard_ you."

Charlie stared at Max, trying to ignore the smirk on Santana's face and Bela attempting to pretend she was uninterested in the answer. "Max, you can't ask your parents if they're having sex, it's _weird_. There are things you really don't want to know. But to answer your question, we were having sex then. I slept on the couch last night with you and CJ remember?"

"Oh. Right," Max scratches his chin. "Then what's mom doing here?"

"It's almost as if you don't want me to be here," Santana deadpanned.

Max opened his mouth to say something when Bela elbowed him, "It's a _trap_ , don't say anything." She tilts her head at her dad it was considerably easier to get straight answers from him. "So what is mom doing here?"

Santana glared at her children and turns to CJ who is splashing water in the sink and mumbling to himself. "You love mommy don't you CJ?" She frowns when CJ ignores her completely screaming in delight when he accidentally sprays himself in the face. "I love you too," she grumbles. Of course Charlie was the _perfect_ dad. She rolls her eyes. "I like to check to make sure your dad is still alive." Both Max and Bela give her looks of disbelief and turn to their dad who is wiping down CJ.

"Don't look at me. Your mom likes to stop by and yell at me for making a mess." Charlie says the first thing he can think of. Stuff with Santana was complicated and he wasn't even sure where they stood. The last thing they needed was their kids analyzing their every move.

"You do that to dad too?" Max blinks at his mother in awe.

Santana shrugs. "Somebody has to make sure that your dad picks up his underwear and folds his socks." She mentally praises Charlie for his quick thinking.

"Do you have to brush your teeth too?" Max asks, completely perplexed by this revelation. He had gotten so used to the different rules that he couldn't really believe it.

Charlie turns around, furrowing his brow. "Yes. Your mom doesn't have to tell me to brush my teeth Max—I don't like my breath smelling like butt."

"Oh." Max slumps back in his seat.

"Right after breakfast I want you to go brush your teeth, Max." Santana shakes her head.

Max opens his mouth to argue only to have Bela nudge him with a pointed glare. "But it's dad's house," he mumbles under his breath.

"And she's still your mom and she still gets to tell you what to do, as she will be doing when you're my age and your mom is super old." Charlie points out, putting CJ back down on the ground. His son toddles off back towards the television ignoring everyone else.

Bela finally puts down her fork and looks at her parents closely. "Mom, you never answered the question. What are you doing here? We're not even supposed to be here with dad."

Santana cringes. She should have known that her daughter wouldn't just let this go, but she didn't want to _lie_ to her children. "I had a bad day yesterday and I came to steal some of your dad's ice cream."

"Dad does have really good ice cream." Max agrees.

"What happened?" Bela frowns. Normally her mom's 'bad days' mean there's some weird scandal that everyone will be talking about at school. "Is there another internet video where dad's naked?"

"No. Thank god." Santana snorts despite herself. "It's just—well you know how Sebastian and I were special friends?"

"Yeah, you were having sex."

"I just said to stop talking about your parents having sex Max, it's weird." Charlie groans.

"It's _true_." Max argues.

"It _was_ true." Santana agrees, cringing at admitting that. Her sex life was not exactly anything she wanted to share with her kids. "But Sebastian and I agreed that he shouldn't come around anymore."

"He _broke up_ with you?" Bela gasps.

"Well, I did say that he was a putz." Charlie slips in. "Apparently not a very smart one. So how about we give your mom a break and we can spend the day together and let your mom relax for a few hours before you guys have to go home. I'll help you with your homework Bela—"

"And me to! I've got _loads_ of homework. I've got a—um—" Max frowns, he wants one on one attention from his dad as well. "Book report!"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Alright I'll help you with your book report Max, and maybe by then CJ will be tired of Little Einstein."

"Doubt it," Santana mumbles stretching as she grabs the bread and the coffee and steals Charlie's tablet before heading back to his room. Charlie didn't care nearly as much about crumbs in his bed like she did, so he probably wouldn't mind.


	40. Chapter 40

Quinn cooed, as she held her daughter in her arms. She was the most beautiful baby in the world. Ten perfect toes, ten perfect fingers, two beautiful eyes, and an absolutely _adorable_ button nose. "She's _beautiful_ Rachel, look at her. Everything about her is beautiful."

Rachel shot Quinn an exhausted smile, the nurses had given her their baby first, but Quinn had needed to hold their child too. She wanted that bond to be just as strong, "I think I should be jealous," Rachel mumbled looking at her wife. There was awe written on Quinn's face, with the adoration and it was obvious that their child had Quinn wrapped around her fingers already. It was amusing because Quinn had spent months mocking her twin brother, even though they were _both_ equally bad when it came to babies.

"Who is mommy's little girl? You are, yes you are," Quinn whispered quietly rocking the baby. "She's quiet," Quinn mumbles looking to Rachel.

"That won't last long, and then they start babbling, and then they start talking and when you think it's not that bad they turn into 'woe is me' teenagers, and then every other word out of their mouth is pure _angst_ about how the world is out to get them," Santana muttered holding a baby bag. "Since you didn't have a shower, and even if you did I wouldn't have come because I _loathe_ those things, I got you some things that I wish someone had brought for me when Bela was born, and Max—and CJ," Santana holds the bag up. It was so much easier now that she wasn't the one in the hospital. "I thought I had it down for CJ, but—yeah—anyway I got you the important stuff. Diapers, wipes, bibs, you know the stuff that you need but you probably forgot. Also got the hobbit-lizard hybrid baby a teddy bear."

"I thought you were at Charlie's game—" Quinn began.

Santana shrugged, "I've been to a _thousand_ of his games and it's probably going to be a routing. Charlie's in playoff mode, but I'm sure he'll be here soon enough. The kids are in the waiting room. Didn't want to swarm you. Max is super excited to see his new cousin. I mean he didn't even mind that we left Charlie's game early."

"You hear that, your cousins are here and your Aunt Brittany is coming in and your grandmother and your two grandfathers," Quinn cooed.

Santana raised a brow and looked at Rachel, "Well, Quinn's out of commission. So I can't keep calling it a hobbit-lizard hybrid, so what are you going to call her. Though if you're going to insist on Barbara then I'm going to insist that Quinn name it."

Rachel let out a small laugh, she was far too exhausted both mentally and physically to take on Santana at this point. "We decided on Beth. _Elizabeth_ Charlotte Berry-Fabray."

Santana blinked and recoiled a bit at the name. "What have you done? He's going to spoil the kid rotten." Beth was a _girl_ and she was named after him, it was going to be his kryptonite. She almost felt sorry for her own children.

"Yes, but also free babysitting," Quinn adds.

"Brittany is going to be gutted," Santana adds.

"She gets the next one," Rachel said shaking her head. "But we've decided that she's not going to babysit,"

Santana snorted and glanced over at Quinn, "Alright, time to hand her over. Finally, a kid I won't feel bad about spoiling rotten."

Quinn glanced up at Santana and frowned and opened her mouth to protest, or to tell her to go wash her hands. There was a slight neurotic look on her face which was why Rachel intervened. "Quinn, why don't you go bring in Bela and Max and CJ to see their new cousin? I think Santana knows what to do with a baby. She's had three of them."

"Yeah—but they're all _weird_ ," Quinn whispers.

"That's Charlie's fault," Santana insists. She wasn't even going to bother defending her kids they were weird and she blamed it on the fact that Charlie's DNA cursed through their bodies. They certainly didn't get it from her.

Quinn shook her head but shuffled over to Santana holding her daughter out and carefully transferring her to Santana. "You've got to watch her head and hold her carefully," Quinn lectured half expecting Santana to remind her that she had done this _three_ times before but Santana merely adjusted her body to Quinn's specifications.

Santana smirked at Quinn with the baby firmly in her arms. "Go get my weirdos, we've got this, don't we Beth?" She coos at the newborn, bouncing her lightly in her arms.

Quinn narrows her eyes. "Her name is _Elizabeth_."

"But that's such a big name for such a little baby." Santana retorts, turning away from Quinn.

Quinn opens her mouth to argue but Rachel's complete look of adoration stops her. Maybe 'Beth' wasn't that bad of a nickname.

Santana waits for the door to close before stepping closer to Rachel. "Alright Mommy, here."

"Oh, you can—"

"No, I know how baby hungry those Fabrays get. Charlie would never give them back when they were born. I can only imagine that Quinn is just as bad."

Rachel shifts in the hospital bed and eagerly accepts the bundle in her arms. "I think Quinn's just worried she'll disappear or something." She grins broadly as her daughter settles in sleepily against her. "Was it like this for you too?"

Santana grins despite herself. "Yeah, the first two times. With CJ—" Her grin fades a little at the memory but shakes her head. It's not Rachel's fault and she sure as hell doesn't want to cloud today with their drama. This was supposed to be Rachel and Quinn's day. "You know, hopefully Charlie doesn't start a little war by basically giving her a bunch of Cleveland swag. You know to rub salt in your wounds."

"She's going to be a _Knicks_ fan even if her favorite player is going to be her uncle," Rachel promised.

"We'll see about that." Santana shakes her head. Between Charlie and Max she's not sure if it's possible for someone in this family to be a _Knicks_ fan.

"Come on CJ, there's a new baby we've got to see!" Max said as he tugged CJ along. His brother struggling to keep up.

Bela sighed and scooped him up, "Max the baby isn't going anywhere. She's just a baby, trust me they don't do much," Bela shook her head. She was trying not to appear overly excited for the newest member of the family, but it was hard playing it cool. "Don't worry CJ, you're still going to be our favorite," Bela promised him when he turned to look at her.

"Speak for yourself," Max mumbled. "We don't have to share dad's attention with this one," Max grumbled, he brightens after a moment. "We also get to teach her everything we know about basketball. Do you think she'll like the little Knicks hat we got for her? Mom said that we shouldn't get her Cleveland because she didn't want you guys to feel bad that your team lost." Max stopped at the doorway peering at the baby in Rachel's arms. "I wanna see."

" _Max_ , indoor voice," Santana whispered looking at her son who had the decency to look a bit sheepish. She watches as he walks over to look at his newest cousin. "Meet Elizabeth, or Beth your cousin."

"She's wrinkly." Max blurts out the first thing he can think of.

Bela hits her brother, rolling her eyes. "She's not wrinkly, she's a _baby_."

"Don't hit your brother." Santana narrows her eyes at her oldest child just as the door to Rachel's hospital room slams open.

"I didn't miss anything?" Charlie gasps out of breath. He had practically sprinted out to his car after the game, Sue had promised she would work it out so that he wouldn't miss a second of this. The police car parade that cleared the way for his quick arrival was probably a little much but he wasn't going to complain about it. They had seemed a bit sour at the fact that they were taking after the drubbing that his team had just given the Knicks but he had given out autographs and taken a few photos.

"Dad, there's a baby." Max grins, not moving from his prime location by Rachel's bedside. This is cooler than when CJ was born because both his mom and dad were here and everybody wasn't acting all weird.

"He can _see_ that." Bela points out with a scoff. She turns to her aunt and gives her the sweetest look she has under her belt. "Can I hold her?"

Quinn visibly shudders but Rachel speaks up before she can say no. "Go wash your hands and then sit in the chair over there."

Santana furrows her brow and moves to stand next to Charlie who is watching the scene with barely masked awe while both of their older kids sprint to the sink to comply with Rachel's demands. "How are you here already?" He had apparently showered, but the game was _barely_ over. He still should have been an hour out.

"I'm a king of this city." Charlie shrugs like it isn't a big deal at all that the entire city did everything in its power to get him here on time, "It's one of the perks." His eyes still focused on the little bundle in Rachel's arms. "Is that her?" He turns to Quinn with a knowing smile. "She's gorgeous."

Any annoyance she might have had toward her twin melted at the pride of her newborn daughter. "She is, right? She's bigger than I thought she would be."

"What's her name?" Charlie turns to follow the kids and wash his hands too. He remembers the panic that came with each of the kids' birth and will do whatever it takes to get close to the new baby. He loves babies—not in a creepy way, but he loves that new baby smell and the newborn cry, he can't get enough of it.

"Elizabeth." Quinn informed him, watching as Charlie began to vibrate in excitement as he held his arms out. He was such a weirdo.

"Hey there Elizabeth, how are you? I'm your favorite and only uncle and you are a _beautiful_ baby." Charlie mumbled.

Rachel watched as Charlie shifted, so he could support her head more. Beth looked absolutely tiny in his arms. "Elizabeth Charlotte Fabray-Berry."

Charlie's eyes widened and he turns to Quinn, "Really?"

"Yeah, I—thank you. You know for helping, I mean I'm still going to pay you back but, thank you."

Santana shook her head as she held CJ who seemed to be hyper focused on what was going on in front of them, as he begun to squirm in her arms. "Now, now CJ," Santana mumbles kissing his cheek.

"Who's my new favorite baby?" Charlie coos, "Santana they named her after me."

" _Dad_!" Max frowned aghast as he poked his head out of the bathroom.

"Shush Max, you'll wake the baby," Charlie frowns at his son.

Max turned to his mom an outraged look on his face. Santana sighed, "I told you he gets weird around newborn babies, he was the exact same way when you were born. I had to stop him from doing the whole _Simba_ thing. Don't worry, it won't last long, probably." Santana vowed.

" _Dada_! _Dada!_ " CJ muttered spitting out his pacifier and holding his hands out for his dad trying to break free from his mom's hold. Santana sighs, and puts him on the ground watching him toddle towards Charlie.

Charlie's eyes flicked towards both his sons who both looked mildly upset at him and frowned, he wanted to continue to hold this precious little baby. "Just a second." He promises.

"Dada! I baby." CJ flings his fist against Charlie's legs frustratedly.

Santana laughs at the forlorn expression on Charlie's face, clearly torn between his youngest and the baby in his arms. "Go on, hand her over to Bela before someone else gets jealous."

Charlie grumbles under his breath and hands Beth to Bela before scooping up CJ who immediately begins to cling to him. "Whatever am I going to do with you?" He rubs CJ's back, shaking his head as CJ immediately buries his head in his father's shoulder. Charlie sighs dramatically and turns to Quinn. "So, when's the next one coming along? I suggest you get that one potty trained before you have another kid."

"Another kid?" Quinn blinks at him owlishly. She can barely think of the lengths she's going to employ in order to keep Beth safe and happy and—oh god, she has a _child_.

Charlie snorts, well-acquainted with the feeling that flashes across Quinn's eyes. "Don't worry I'll be sure to give you pointers. I'm an _excellent_ dad. Number one dad in the world right Max?"

"Eh." Max muttered from where he was running his finger along Beth's little hands. Babies were sort of cute.

"Bela?"

"Don't drag me into this, you're probably already planning to have another one even though you have three children already."

Santana snorted and Charlie shot her a withering look, "Well, don't show favoritism then."

"But it's a _baby_." Charlie whined.

Max was fascinated by the little bundle in his sister's arms and it sparked a memory. "Are you going to change her name? Like mom did?"

Santana's eyes widen. She didn't think her middle child even remembered that, but she should have known that she wasn't that lucky. "Max—"

"What are you talking about—" Charlie furrowed his brow.

"Like CJ—He was _going_ to be Charles but then mom said he was Carlos and CJ just made more sense." Max cocks his head to the side and glances at his aunts. "Right?"

The adults in the room all freeze completely. "Charlie, it's not—"

Charlie clears his throat. "Elizabeth is a fine name; I mean we're probably going to end up calling her _Beth_ but I like it. And by naming her after me does that mean I'm the godfather?"

Quinn cleared her throat, "It means you're in the running, though if we're honest between you and Brittany you win hands down. But we'll see."

He nods, clearly distracted. "Right. Well I should go get something for us all to eat. I remember Santana used to get really hungry, let me go find something vegan and I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Charlie—" Santana begins again, but he walks past her carrying CJ in his arms. She sighs and runs a hand through her hair before forcing a smile onto her face.

"Way to go Max," Bela muttered. She should have been an _only_ child, then she wouldn't have to deal with the headache of her parents being weird all the time. She knew how to keep her mouth shut, and Max had no filter.

"What?"

"It's nothing," Santana insists looking at Quinn and Rachel and mouthing a small apology to them. Today was not the day for _their_ drama. They needed to celebrate the birth of Beth.

"Brittany's looking better and better," Quinn muttered mostly to herself.

Rachel shoots her an angry look. There was no way they were going to even consider someone who could barely pay her bills on time and used her brother as a personal piggy bank. Yes Brittany would have a lot of love to give their child, but the actual responsibilities that came along with raising children? Santana and Charlie were still their best bet. "Be nice." She chides.

Santana glances at the door sadly. Well that could have gone better.

~0~

"You know CJ, I really messed up. I know, you probably think I'm awesome like Max does and that I can do no wrong but I _really_ messed up," Charlie mumbles to his son who is sitting on his lap sucking on his pacifier and studying him. "I wasn't there when you were born, I should have been—I was absent throughout most of the time you were in your mom's tummy. I wasn't there when you said your first word, or when you walked or even to hold you in the night when you cried." If CJ weren't firmly on his lap, Charlie would have punched something. He also probably would have broken his hand, but that seems negligible.

"Daddy, sorry." CJ declares, popping out his pacifier.

Charlie laughs despite himself. "You're right. Daddy is sorry. I'm _so_ sorry. I should have been there for you and for your mom and I hate that I wasn't." He runs his hand over CJ's head, his son's head was _tiny_ in his massive hands, but it caused CJ to smile. Or maybe it was just gas, it was hard to tell with CJ sometimes.

CJ watches his father closely and pulls on Charlie's shirt growing bored with this conversation. " _Hungy_." He declares, reaching and touching Charlie's beard and shoving his pacifier back in his mouth.

Charlie rolls his eyes, "Of course you are, don't worry the food will be here soon," Charlie said shaking his head. At least CJ saw him as a provider of food. It was a start. He scratches his chin as CJ begins to shift on his lap making sure to keep an arm on him so he didn't fall.

A door near them opens and CJ launches himself out of Charlie's lap. "Mommy, up." He demands, wiggling out of Charlie's grasp.

Santana accepts her youngest, quietly watching Charlie who made a face at this. "Charlie—"

"Carlos is a fine name. Your dad is a good man," Charlie interrupts. "Besides, naming a kid after me would be silly, they'd end up hating it. Oh Charles Junior, are you going to play basketball with your dad? You're not related to _that_ Charlie Fabray are you? You made the right call Santana."

"Charlie—"

"No, you _did_. You kept _Carlos_ from having to grow up with my name stuck to him. It's already bad enough that they're all Fabrays, right?" He shakes his head derisively.

"Okay enough." Santana rubs her brow tiredly. "Are we really going to do this today?"

"No. We're not. Because I don't _blame_ you."

Santana studied him carefully, attempting to ascertain if he was merely being passive aggressive. She rolled her eyes after a moment, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself, it's weird. You weren't there, throughout most of the pregnancy, but that wasn't on you. It's not as if you _didn't_ try, I cut you out. As for CJ's birth—well I named him Charles when my brain was still filled with pregnancy hormones."

"Why don't you _hate_ me? I would. I _do._ "

"I'm furious with you, most days that is. There are days when I want nothing to do with you and I wish that I could cut you from my life. But I can't, we have three kids who love their dad a lot, despite the fact that they might think that you're not that bright. They don't hate you, Bela might be irritated that you cheated, Max doesn't really understand the implication and CJ's a baby. But they don't hate you, because you're their dad. And it's hard to be furious at you, it's hard to _hate_ you when you're still trying to be the best dad that you can given the circumstances." Santana informs him bluntly, choosing not to add that it was difficult not to love him either.

"I should have been there."

"You were working."

"He is _my_ son and I should have been there." Charlie repeats. He's been able to blame everyone but himself for this mess.

"How? You weren't even in the same state. CJ came when he wanted to come. Not a moment sooner, not a moment later." Santana pointed out. "I mean it's easy for me to say it, but you don't have a crystal ball and it's not like calling you was a priority. Getting our son out of my body was. All of your children were fat babies. You want to take the blame, take the blame for that"

Charlie puffs out his cheeks, watching CJ. "Still."

"He's your son. Sure he's got mostly my personality, but I figure give him a few years for the dorkiness to set in." Santana said sitting beside him. "By the way, whenever your season ends you're going to spend most of the summer weaning him off his pacifier."

Charlie winced, their son _loved_ his pacifier. "Sure," he said reaching to tap CJ's shoulder. Sure he had a surgery coming up, but how hard could it be?

CJ spat out his pacifier and frowned at his father. " _Hungy_."

Santana smirks and Charlie's momentarily struck with how similar CJ's scowl is to Santana. "Face it," Santana continues, "This boy unfortunately is the perfect storm of our personalities and if we waste time pointing the blame, we're going to miss out on the time that we do have with the kids."

"I guess you're right," Charlie says after a moment turning to look at the entrance as someone carrying what appears to be a bag of food and is looking at the name on the receipt. "See food." Charlie smiles reaching to find his wallet only to pause and pat his pockets. "Uh—Santana?"

Santana rolled her eyes, "And people say Brittany's _bad_. I'll cover you just this once." His wallet was _probably_ in his gym bag and in his rush he had forgotten it.


	41. Chapter 41

" _Awesome!"_ Max whooped loudly as his dad managed to force the dunk into the net. It was a contact dunk which was so much harder than a regular dunk. Max turns to CJ who is watching his older brother a smile on his face. "That's dad CJ!"

"Dada!" CJ shouts as the camera zooms in on Charlie. Who seemed eerily focused and had a frown on his face. "Dada!" CJ shuffles off the couch and makes his way to the television.

"No CJ! No." Max said gruffly getting up to pull his brother back, he wasn't going to allow CJ to break the television. It was game six, and the Cav's were winning, if they just managed to get past the fourth quarter his dad would have another ring. "Okay, as your big brother, I need to tell you everything I know about basketball. Just like dad taught me everything he knows about football."

Santana rolled her eyes picking at the big bowl of popcorn that she had made for the family. "Your dad doesn't know _squat_ about football."

"He does too! Dad knows _everything_ about sports" Max insists.

"Dad _hates_ football." Bela points out, he only watched it with Max because he assumed Max liked it.

"No he doesn't. I saw a picture of dad in a football uniform before, he _played,_ " Max insists.

Santana bit her lip, debating whether she should burst his bubble or not. Charlie had played football for one practice to appease his father who had assumed that he would be some great football player. Charlie was not. After one practice he had promptly quit. "Your dad doesn't think football is worth the money. For putting your body on the line like football entails, he thinks you should be making NBA money for that and even that's not enough."

"Dad told me he joined the football team to impress you," Bela frowns looking at her mom who tries not to openly laugh. "Is this one of those times where dad is trying to make himself look cool again?"

"Dad _is cool_ right CJ?" Max interrupts, trying to defend his dad.

CJ looks at Max and grins at him as he toddles back towards the food. "AX!"

"See, CJ agrees with me."

"That's not—"

"Max, I know you love your dad but even he admits that he's a dork sometimes. And yes this one of the instances where he rewrote history. By the time we entered high school we were already dating. He didn't need to impress me." Santana admits fondly.

"So what was he like in high school?"

"A dork, your father's always been a dork. Nothing in the world could change that. I'm sorry, he might be 'cool' now doing all those special dunks and doing those photoshoots and vying to be the sexiest man in the world, but I know your dad better than anyone and as you know he's a dork." Santana reaches over and taps Max's forehead. "And that's okay to be yourself Max. Some girls are probably going to think you're weird but there's going to be that one girl who thinks you're a dork and loves that about you, just like I like it about your father."

Max huffed for a moment before watching the screen, he was torn between wanting his dad to lose so it would force a game seven and then he could come watch his dad win, and wanting his dad to put an end to the season so they could go back to their regularly scheduled visits. He blinks when CJ tries to crawl on top of him. Max shifts and picks his brother up placing him on the couch beside him. "Dad's going to win CJ, and then he's going to have two rings! When you're older he'll let you see them. They are _so cool_ and you'll get to touch the trophy CJ."

Santana rolled her eyes, deciding to let Max talk CJ's ear off. Most of the time her youngest would simply walk away but he seemed tired, understandable since it was past his bedtime. He'd probably be asleep soon enough. "You know you both have school tomorrow right?"

"Do we have to go?" Max whines, affronted at the idea of having to go to _school_ after such a great game. It's not like his teachers even cared anymore, it was almost summer vacation. School should be illegal during the finals.

Santana rolls her eyes. It was a question that Max would probably never stop asking. "Yes. You have to go."

Max frowns as he slumps back into the couch. At least he would always have basketball.

~O~

Principal Figgins looks down on the two Fabray children warily. They haven't been in much trouble during the school year and he wishes he's mostly tempted to just let this go with a warning since he really doesn't want to have to worry about an incident report and talking to parents. But part of leading such an upscale school is dealing with entitled children and their doting parents. "Don't think that because your father managed to bring home an NBA championship to this city that it means that you're going to get away with this. There is a _zero_ tolerance policy for fighting." The rest of the hooligans that had been fighting were out in the hallway.

Max kicked his feet from where he had a bloody nose, he'd never been in this much trouble before, but he knew his dad wouldn't be _that_ mad at him. He was supposed to help his sister and that's exactly what he had done, even if he had gotten hurt doing it, but that was only because Bobby was bigger than he was.

Bela scowled at Figgins, even as she ran her hand through her hair, wincing in pain Bree was such a bitch, but she looks over at Max, feeling guilty that he had been dragged into this and wondering what she had ever seen in Bobby, at least Max hadn't cried. "You okay Max?"

Max winced but smiled and nodded. "Dad's not going to be too mad at us right?"

"Probably, once he finds out what we were fighting for. He'll probably buy us the _good_ ice cream. Or take us to Disney World—"

Figgins rolled his eyes, "We couldn't get in touch with your father, we called both numbers that you gave us. So we had to call your mother."

Bela paled considerably, "You did what?"

Max paused for a second and then looked at his sister, "You said that they'd call dad! That we probably wouldn't get in trouble!" Their mom was going to murder them. He was going to get all his stuff taken away and be forced to live in a room with just a bed and he wouldn't be able to watch replays of his dad winning his second championship again. His mom would probably _delete_ it! "Bela _do_ something!"

Bela reached for her phone, she had just talked to her dad last night after the championship game, he had promised to see them soon. Maybe he just wasn't answering strange numbers, at least if their dad was here he'd be able to calm their mother down. She immediately finds her dad's number and calls him only for the call to automatically go to voicemail. His phone was off. Their father was leaving them in the hands of their mother and they weren't going to be grounded until they were off to university because of this. She was going to have to spend all summer picking up trash by the freeway or something.

Bela feels her stomach flop when Mr. Figgin's intercom announces her mom's presence. Her mind racing for a way out of the hell on earth her mother would unleash on them when they got home. Immediately she turns to her brother. " _Cry_ ," she hisses.

Max turns to his sister and makes a face not quite understanding. "What?"

 _"_ _Cry—"_

"I don't need to _cry_." Max huffs.

"There'd better not be any _fake_ tears." Santana snaps, slamming the door behind her. She narrows her eyes at the principal who seems to sweat under her glare. She frowns and comes to sit in the empty seat beside her son. "Care to tell me what the hell happened here?"

"Your son and daughter—"

"The fact that my son has blood all over his ridiculously expensive uniform and my daughter has a massive bruise on her face, means that someone wasn't watching these kids and _didn't_ break up whatever happened fast enough. Which begs the question why is my family paying an obscene amount of money to go to this school. I was under the impression that the class sizes were small, and that any and _all_ issues would be handled by the teachers. So can you tell me _why_ my children are injured and the two _psychotic_ pre-pubescent children are outside."

Figgins scratches his cheek. He really should have waited for the children's father. "The students who witnessed the fight agreed that Bela acted first and attacked a student."

But Santana was familiar enough with the principal's office not to be cowed. "Which only further illustrates my point. Where was an administrator or teacher? I am taking my kids home for the day, where you better believe we will be discussing this at length. But I _trust_ that before any actual punishment is doled out against _my_ children, you will conduct an in depth investigation as to how this was allowed to happen."

Bela winced, "Mom—"

"Not now Bela," Santana intercedes before her daughter can make this worse. Figgins looked like he was terrified of any potential lawsuit that they would bring. Max still had a bit of baby fat on his cheeks, which meant he looked adorable.

"We will be looking into it, however our _institution_ has a _zero_ -tolerance policy for _violence_ and this is the second time that your daughter, Isabela has broken one of our zero-tolerance policies. Which means that two days from now there will be an expulsion hearing. She's violated our code of conduct to many times. However we will take into consideration that she has managed to lift herself out of academic probation. There will be counsel provided for you, or you are free to hire your own _counsel_ if you so wish."

"But that's not even—"

" _Bela,_ I think you've done enough damage for today don't you? Look at your brother? Getting dragged into a fight with a boy _who is bigger than him_ and older—"

"I heard that that Bela was fighting and I came to stop her from getting in trouble," Max insists. "I only got into a fight with the _putz_ because Bela told me that Bree had dad's _wedding_ ring and you know how important that ring is to dad. He got so mad that it was missing." Max spoke up looking at his mom. "Dad wouldn't be mad at me."

"Yes, well I'm not your father and that doesn't mean that you can get into fights. Look at what they did to your face! You could have been killed," Santana insists touching Max's face and wiping away some blood.

Bela scowled at the display, of course Max was going to get out of this without any punishment. It would be her fault and she was going to get punished for something that she didn't even start.

But Santana narrows her glare at Figgins. "Show me the ring."

"Excuse me?"

"If Bela says that the little sociopath has her father's wedding ring, I believe her. That same ring went missing after Bela had her over and I'm _positive_ this isn't a coincidence. It's only fair." Santana crosses her arms over her chest.

Figgins mulls over the proposal. Regardless of the ring's disposition, it would make him seem like he was being fair. "Of course," he says finally and gets up opening the door, it would be easy of course. He looks at Bobby and Bree for a moment, Bobby's parents would be arriving late however Bree's parents had never once showed up. "Bree will you step inside the office for a moment?"

Santana adjusted herself in her seat, flicking her eyes over at Bela. "Not a word. I'll handle this."

Max leans in a bit over his mother, "Yeah Bela, mom's got this."

Santana shook her head at Max's attempts to suck up. There would be a punishment for the two of them but until they were in private she was going to back her kids in this scenario and if it meant taking down some uppity little pre-teen then so be it.

It only takes a second for Figgins to return with a smirking Bree.

But Santana wasn't going to take it. She could handle being the center of an international media frenzy, but a snot-nosed pre-teen? No, there were some things that she wouldn't stand for. "Let me tell you how this is going to be. You're going to show us the ring that you stole from my ex-husband's bedroom. And _no_. You cannot claim that he gave it to you because he filed a police report so don't get any dumbass ideas."

Bree's smirk fades slightly as she glances to Figgins for confirmation. "Mrs. Fabray—"

"Lopez," Santana corrects.

"Mrs. Lopez, I can assure you that there's no need to call the police. This matter can be handled internally."

"I don't think I was clear, this little sycophant, is going to show me the ring, and I will call the cops. Any goodwill that you may have garnered from me was over the moment you decided my daughter was going to be expelled. So show it to me, or I will have cops down here arresting you and you can show it to them in some seedy little interview room that smells like piss and shit."

Max's eyes widened. His mom had used a bad word but the look on her face as she stared at Bree and Mr. Figgins seemed to make them very afraid. Now he understood why his dad always tried to run when his mom was angry and she _definitely_ looked angry.

"Bree."

"Don't I get a lawyer or something—"

"Sure. You can have a lawyer when I talk to the police." Santana determines. "But rest assured, I'm going to be pressing charges and suing your parents for every penny I can."

"You can't do that."

"I _can_ do that and I will. So you can either do this the easy way, or you can do it the hard and publicly embarrassing way, I frankly don't give a damn. So now, instead of wasting everyone's time, show me the ring."

Bree swallowed as she fished the chain she had around her neck off, she had no idea how Bela had even seen it. She'd been so careful, "My parents gave it to me," she insists looking at Mr. Figgins. "I don't know why I'm the one on trial, I should press charges or something because Bela attacked me and—"

"Go ahead," Santana said dismissively. Charlie would spend a mini fortune and given how valuable he was to the city, Bela would probably get a slap on the wrist.

" _Mom_." Bela hissed.

"Well, Mrs Lopez as you can see that this ring is—"

"My husband's wedding band, and worth fifteen thousand dollars." Santana interrupts not taking her eyes off the stupid piece of metal. She had spent hours searching for the perfect ring, Charlie couldn't wear it while he played, and he didn't like having it on his hand given how many times he'd broken or sprained his fingers playing basketball, but that was _his_ chain that was around her neck. She'd recognize that chain and that black platinum wedding band anywhere.

"No _my_ parents gave this to me," Bree insisted.

"Yet you're wearing imitation Louboutin's because I can smell the glue still drying on that cheap ass imitation red sole. Let's not even begin to discuss your cheap hoop earrings, that look like you picked them from the dollar store." Santana sneered, she was being vicious but this Bree needed a reality check. "So now, as I've stated I'm going to call the police. Bela hand me your phone please."

"You can't _do that_." Bree pales.

"I can and I will." Santana smirks when Bela plops her phone into her waiting palm. "And what's even better is that I had my name engraved on the inside of the band right _here_." She points to the inscription. Glancing up at the principal she glares pointedly. "And if _you_ think that I'm not going to hold this school accountable then you have another thing coming."

Figgins gulps. "In light of these events, maybe an expulsion hearing isn't necessary. For your children, however a hearing will take place for Bree and Bobby."

"That's _not fair_!"

Santana smirks and dials the number for the police. It was time the little fucker got what was coming to her. Next she was going to rip into Charlie for not answering his damn phone. But that was a battle for later.


	42. Chapter 42

" _Max_ all because you got suspended does not mean that you can't get dressed in the morning and put on some pants. It also doesn't mean that you can watch cartoons all day or ESPN, you're still grounded you know." Santana snapped at Max who was currently sitting on her lovely sofa with only a pair of boxers on. She wouldn't even let his father pull the same stunt.

Max frowned, his mom had _said_ that he was grounded but she had also patted him on the head and said that she was proud of him for doing the right thing. As far as Bela was concerned they were only grounded in name only, their mom wasn't _that_ angry at them. "Sorry," he calls out flipping off the television there was nothing on to watch anyway. He's about to move when he gets smacked in the face by CJ who looks angry at him. "Ow."

"DEGO! I wanna Dego!"

Bela groaned from where she was curled up on a couch. "Turn the television back to Go Diego Go. He won't stop yelling about it if you don't. I think he thinks it's a show about him."

"He doesn't even _look_ like Diego," Max pointed out.

"He's a _toddler_ who knows what he thinks when he looks in a mirror," Bela retorts. She groans and rolls off the couch deciding to leave Max to watch CJ attempting to pet the jaguar on the television and heads towards the kitchen where her mom is glaring at her phone. "Mom?"

Santana glances at Bela, "It's been two days, have you managed to talk to your dad since you got suspended? Apparently I can't make unilateral decisions about your education without at least informing him what my plans are."

Bela sighed, which meant that her mother was _still_ going to make a unilateral decision about whether they would be going back or not. Bela had _hoped_ to convince her dad to convince her mom to pull them out of the school and find another one but every time she attempted to call him it went straight to voicemail. "Nope, Max tried again this morning and most of last night. Went straight to voicemail. We didn't bother leaving a message. He never listens to them. He's probably still partying with the rest of the team."

Santana snorted, that was _doubtful_ , it was more likely that he had found someone to stick his dick in. He was probably riding a high and probably needed to get that energy out somehow. "Your father isn't out partying, but he might be visiting Quinn in New York. Beth's apparently a terror. Of course she is, Quinn and Rachel didn't realize that the world wasn't ready for a lizard-hobbit hybrid. Either way your aunt Quinn and Rachel are _both_ out of their element. I'd call both of them but Quinn will probably bitch at me if I happened to wake Beth up."

"Why don't you try Mike?" Max asked heading to the fridge to get himself a drink. "He might know where dad is."

"I don't know Mike's number," Santana pointed out. It was a first, she hadn't made friends with the wives of Charlie's teammates. Thankfully, it meant that she didn't have to manage the various egos, or join the silly club.

"Yeah, but Aunt Brittany _definitely_ does," Bela reminded her.

Santana made a face, her kids were right. But Brittany was probably having sex. It was most likely that Brittany was currently having sex now, and she didn't really want to interrupt. She eyes her children, "Who is watching CJ?" She prompts watching as they look at each other and head to check in on their younger brother. She taps her fingers on the island for a moment, she didn't even know how her life had come to revolve around Charlie. If he was going to drop off the face of the planet then he didn't _deserve_ to have a say in what she decided for the kid's school. She should be working on the next season of the show which was supposed to start in a month. Not to mention that with Charlie around more it meant that she could finally start diversifying her own portfolio and travelling out of state to do so. He was their father he shouldn't have just dropped off the face of the earth like this. He had ignored her calls in the past but never the kids not for this long, this wasn't like him at all.

She hits Brittany's number rolling her eyes at the goofy picture that Brittany had taken and waiting for it to go to voicemail. Instead Brittany picks it up on the second ring, and judging from the panting that she could hear, she had caught her friend and sister-in-law after a workout, at least she hoped it was workout. "Britt?"

' _San! Hey! You called at a really bad_ —' Brittany laughs and Santana can hear the sound of her swatting something and the rustle of some sheets. ' _Stop it! Yeah bad time—_ '

"Gross, but I'm not calling for you. Hand the phone over to Mike." Santana interrupts, she needs to get straight to the point. She already knew far too many details about Britt's sex life. She could practically see Brittany frown as what she said finally registered.

' _Why do you need to talk to Mike?_ '

"I need to find your brother. I haven't heard from him in _days_ and I need to make sure he isn't dead in a ditch somewhere. The kids will be devastated if he is."

' _Mike's—busy right now,_ ' Brittany groans lowly.

Santana pinched the bridge of her nose, " _Brittany_. Mike can eat you out in two minutes, I need to find out where he is unless you know what he's up to. Hand it over and then we can both go back to what we were doing."

' _But—'_

"Britt. Ex-Husband, _your brother_ might be dead in a ditch somewhere. Hand the phone over."

 _'_ _Fine! But you owe me._ '

Santana rolled her eyes, trying not to gag at the sound of rustling sheets and some rather loud whispering. They were _terrible_ at this.

' _Hello?"_

"Mike, just tell me where the father of my children is, and I'll let you get back to—" Santana glances up when she senses movement in the corner of her peripheral vision. Max was back at the fridge attempting to find something to eat. "Brittany."

' _Uh_ — _I don't think I should—_ '

Santana frowned, "Mike, if you don't answer the question I will make your life a living hell. And I know what you're thinking, Brittany says that my bark is worse than my bite, and I don't have the power to make your life hell. And you're right to an extent. I will make Charlie's life a living hell, and when he finally begs me to tell him what he did, I will point him in your direction. What do you think of Minnesota? I hear it's _freezing_ in the winters. By the way Brittany hates the cold. So think carefully about how you want to play this because that championship might be your _very_ last."

Max turned his head to stare at his mom his eyes wide.

' _Cleveland. He's back in Cleveland. If anyone asks how you found out, just blame Jake. I think he should be home now? I was going to check in on him in a few days.'_ There was something in her voice that made Mike not doubt the veracity of her words. He'd deal with the fallout later.

Santana smiled, that was easy. "Thank you, it was a pleasure doing business with you. Be safe!" Santana ends the call and glances at Max who is still staring at her. "Do you need something Max?"

"When did you become cool?" Max asks seriously, he had noticed it when he had seen how she had handled Mr. Figgins and Bree.

Santana blinked at her son, "Always? Wait, you never thought I was 'cool' before?"

"Well—you're my _mom_ , and you don't play basketball and you can't dunk and do cool things like that, and you make me go to school and eat my vegetables." Max scratched his chin and crinkles his nose, "Don't tell dad because it'll hurt his feelings but I think you're cooler than him."

Santana bit back a grin, Max had always been his father's son and she had done her best not to interfere, but now she was winning in the contest for coolest parent. "Of course not."

Max grins at his mom. "So where is he? You found him right?"

"I did, Mike said he should be at home so why don't we take a little trip across town and go find out what your father's excuse is for not having his phone turned on. Shall we?" Max nods but doesn't move and she rolls her eyes. "Which means go put on _clothes_ Max and tell your brother and sister that we're going to go see your dad."

Max nods again, "Bela! CJ we're going to go see dad! So go get ready." He yells before taking off to his room.

"I said go—never mind," Santana groans, sliding off the chair and heading straight to the living room to get CJ ready.

"Go Dego go!" CJ yelled at the TV as he hopped around.

Bela looked at her mom and then back at CJ, "I think he needs a change, and you know he's going to start screaming if you take him before the show is done. So where is he?"

"He's apparently holed up in his apartment, probably in some sort of food coma or something," Santana said dismissively. "He probably gorged himself on ice cream." It was an easy lie, the fact that Mike was attempting to hide it probably meant that Charlie had been with some _woman_ but there was no need to bring that up with the kids.

"Hangover?"

"Probably." Santana agreed shaking her head. "If that's the case, be sure to make as _much_ noise as possible."

Bela laughed at this, before making her way to go get ready to see her dad.

~O~

"Guess who we're going to see CJ?" Santana asked looking at him, her son grinned at her from beneath his pacifier. There were times when she wondered what he remembered, and what he knew. She already had a feeling that CJ was going to be a mischievous little shit as he grew up.

"Daddy!"

"You know the first thing he's going to do is demand that dad buy him _p-i-z-z-a_ right?" Max pointed out making a face, they had eaten a lot of pizza lately and he was tired of it.

"Yes well, CJ's getting chubbier, and I don't need his pediatrician _judging me_ because my son is addicted to the stuff." Santana grumbled she was going to need to give Charlie a list of things that CJ could and couldn't eat. Also he couldn't carry CJ everywhere anymore, CJ was able to walk, he didn't like doing it when people would carry him, but he needed to be more active.

The door to the elevator dings and CJ immediately takes off running, Max groaning as he runs as after his brother. "This way CJ!"

Bela glanced at her mother as she pulled out her phone, "Are you going to yell at dad?"

"Probably. Especially if he has a hangover, I plan on letting CJ bang on pots and pans. Next time he'll pick up when his children call him." Santana sniffed indignantly, anything to make sure her ex-husband understood that he simply couldn't just disappear like that.

" _Dad_ , open up! It's us. Come on CJ help," Max said as he banged his hands against his dad's door. CJ begins to hit the door with his little fists and the door swings open after a second as Max grins and looks up only to take a step back. "You're not my dad! Who are you?"

"Dave." He introduces himself, keeping the door only partially opened. "I'm uh—you aren't supposed to be here."

Santana narrows her eyes at Dave, "Where is he?" She vaguely remembered meeting him and if he works for the team then this is something far different than what she was expecting.

"He's—" Dave glances behind him at the couch and cringes, "resting?"

Santana rolls her eyes and pushes past him, forcing her way into Charlie's apartment. These were _his_ kids and she did _not_ sign up to be a single parent. She stops short when she sees Charlie sprawled out on his couch, his arm pulled into a tight sling. "What the— _fuck_? What the fuck happened?"

Bela immediately reaches down to block CJ's ears, but he wriggles away and immediately crawls past Dave and into the apartment. Making a beeline towards his toys in the corner. "What's wrong?"

"Uh—" Dave winces, he hadn't been paid to handle this. As far as he knew the kids weren't scheduled to be dropped off for another two days. It would have been enough time for him to slowly taper off the meds but that didn't seem to be happening.

"Dad?" Max peered into his dad's apartment and frowned, rushing to his side. "What did you do to my dad?"

"Nothing—you're not supposed to be here and—"

"You're going to tell me _what the hell_ happened," Santana snaps at him. How had no one notified her that her ex-husband had been in an accident of some sort? Now she almost felt bad for thinking that he had been shacked up with another woman.

Dave groaned, "He's been playing with a torn labrum for the past three months. He got it repaired the morning after he won the championship. This whole thing has been kept quiet for months, we didn't want any "accidents" happening on the court where they targeted the shoulder. Burt hired me to take care of him for a few days."

"He went through a _major surgery_ and didn't tell me?" Santana hissed.

"My will has been updated," Charlie mumbles from the couch, popping one eye open sleepily.

Dave look a bit relieved, "At least he's not singing Disney songs at the top of his lungs anymore."

"Dad!" Max grinned throwing his arms around Charlie's neck.

" _Ow_. _Ow._ Max leggo, everything hurts," Charlie mumbled as his son jostled his shoulder. "Dave more drugs!"

Max jumped back, "Sorry," he mumbles. "You played with an injury for three months?" Charlie nods sleepily and Max grins, "That's so—"

" _Stupid_." Bela interrupts scowling and saying exactly what her mom would have said.

" _Exactly._ What were you trying to prove?" Santana demanded only to be rewarded by what could only be Charlie's most charming _drugged up_ smile. "You know what, we'll talk about that later. Why didn't you _call_ me and let me know?" It wasn't about the will, if anything Charlie had been responsible about that for years. Making sure that his kids would want for nothing. He had probably added Beth to his will as well, he'd never tell Quinn that. He was rather quiet about the whole thing, even she hadn't seen the thing. But he looked it over every year.

"We're _divorced_. You don't need to be worrying about me. It was a simple surgery." Charlie groaned holding out his good arm for Max to help him up.

Santana stared at him, feeling the urge to simply start smacking him until he understood how she felt. "I'm going to let that slide since you're _high_." Santana finally responds snippily. She turns to Dave who looks a bit lost. "Tell me what he needs and I'll take care of it."

"Uh—"

"I'm not going to kill him. My children are around," Santana points to Bela.

"You're in trouble dad," Bela whispered leaning in, she watches as her dad squints and then blinks a few times.

"What the hell happened to your beautiful face?" Charlie demanded his hand shooting out so he could tilt Bela's face up. His eyes narrowed. "Was it a boy? I don't care if I'm an adult I'll kill him."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Well if you picked up your phone you'd know that two out of three of your children got into a fight at school and they're both suspended for a week."

Max puffed out his chest, he didn't have a bruise on his face like Bela did even though his nose still sort of hurt. "I tried to protect Bela, but I got punched in the face by some guy who was bigger than me, I didn't cry though." He was immediately rewarded with his dad placing one of his giant hands on his head and messing it up.

"Good job."

Santana twitched, "No. You're not going to reward our kids for getting into fights and then nearly being expelled. There are other ways to solve problems then using fists."

Charlie nods. "Right, what your mother said but I'm still proud of you Max. Now why were you fighting Bela?"

Bela makes a face and pulls away from her dad, she should have asked her mom for some make up, the last thing she needed was to have her dad coming down on her like a ton of bricks. Some of her clothes still smelled like _mothballs_ from the last time he had punished her. "I found your wedding ring, and I thought you'd finally trust me again if I brought it back. Bree stole it. I just tried to get it back."

Charlie tilted his head a bit and glanced at Santana who he knew was judging him. He turns back to Bela and winks at her, "Well, you shouldn't be fighting. You're grounded."

Santana rolled her eyes as Bela grinned at her dad widely. "If our children end up arrested, it's going to be _your_ fault." She muttered and looked at Dave who was still waiting around. "Seriously who do I have to call so you leave?"

"Burt and Sue, they arranged this."

"Well get them on the phone," Santana ordered.

Charlie adjusted himself on the couch, so his kids could sit beside him and he points to the remote. "My freezer is filled with Ben and Jerry's ice cream." He groans when Max immediately hops off the couch. "Careful Max, I'm delicate."

Santana snorted as her son immediately heads to his dad freezers, well there went CJ's diet, and she needed to get camera ready as well.

"Hey CJ want some ice cream?"

CJ's head whips around and he lets his pacifier drop as he scrambles to his feet. "AX! Ice cream! I wan ice cream!" He immediately toddles over to Max who is pulling out the various flavors and checking them carefully.

Bela took the remote from her dad who was struggling with it. "Netflix?"

"Yeah, but I need drugs. I can't do this without drugs." He pauses for a moment, and looks at Bela. "Don't do drugs."

Bela rolled her eyes. "Right dad. But so you know, when you're singing Disney songs at the top of your lungs, I'm putting it on Instagram."

"Then you'll _really_ be grounded."

Santana shakes her head as CJ seems to realize his father is in the room and toddles over, holding his hands up. She sighed, for one day she had been the _cool_ parent, but Charlie was always going to be the _fun_ dad.

"Well since you two are criminals now or criminals in training, why don't we go to Disney World?"

"Really?" Max said as he balanced four containers of ice cream. "We've never been; you always make excuses."

"Cause your father is a baby who is terrified of roller coasters." Santana informs them, smirking as Charlie flushed.

"I _do not_!" Charlie nods his thanks at Dave who hands him a pill and holds a glass of water out for him. "I just hate the long lines and all the people."

Santana watched as Bela and Max looked between them. "Fine, when your arm is out of that sling and the kids are finished with school, we'll spend a few days down at Disney. I'll book the tickets, and the room and everything."

"Am I paying for this trip?" Charlie asked, this was not his idea of a fun vacation. Renting a house with a private beach and spending a few days away from civilization and playing with his kids was his idea of a good vacation.

"Oh no, this is my treat." Santana insists, they had gone to Six Flags _once_ , when they were teenagers and Charlie had nearly wet himself. It wasn't his finest moment, but she would pay anything to see him drop a peg or two in the eyes of her kids. "Just don't forget the sunscreen Charlie, the lobster look is _not_ a good look for you."

Charlie was about to protest when Max interrupted, "We're going to _Disney!"_ He shouted at CJ who began to hop around screaming. Neither one of them noticing how pale their father had gone.


	43. Chapter 43

Charlie Fabray _loathed_ amusement parks. The crowds of people, the long lines, the screaming children, the overpriced crappy food. He hated tourist traps in general, everything was needlessly expensive. Which was why he had convinced Santana to make it a two-day trip to Disney and the rest of the week could be spent on the private beach that he had gotten. It was part of his poorly thought out master plan to win his wife back. Most of the plan had come together when he was high on drugs.

Though, if he was being honest with himself, the smug grin on Santana's face was making him rethink some things. She _knew_ how he felt about roller coasters and yet she wasn't going to let him get out of talking big with the kids. Every single attempt he had done to get out of the mess he had dug himself into was quickly thwarted by his ex-wife. The only way to get the last laugh in this situation was to go through with it. His ex-wife was the _devil_ as far as he was concerned. "I still say we should work our way up to the big rides," he tries again.

"Sorry, there's only so many times we can ride the carousel before the kids are going to get suspicious." Santana smirks knowingly.

"What about Peter Pan? Snow White? We just walked right past Winnie the Pooh." Charlie huffs. The carousel was a _solid_ plan.

Bela rolls her eyes. "Winnie the Pooh had a fifteen-minute wait so we can do that _later_." She and Max had read all the blogs they could find to perfect their Disney strategy. Plus, CJ was little enough that it didn't matter.

"Yeah, we have fast passes for Space Mountain in an hour." Max tugs Charlie along excitedly.

"Santana, we _watched_ Final Destination when it came out. Remember?" Charlie tried again, attempting to plead to Santana's better judgement. He liked the slow rides. As far as he was concerned his kids took after Santana in their thrill seeking. He'd rather just go to some silly show with CJ and relax away from all the people. Some people even recognized him and he had signed a few autographs. He _hated_ it and especially the crappy music.

"But we're doing Splash Mountain now." Santana throws in, as far as she could tell it was the perfect ride to start him off with. She wasn't _trying_ to kill him, but it was a nice easy ride with just a couple of drops.

"Okay. Well CJ is too little, so I'll just stay behind—"

"Dad you _promised_ I could ride it with you."

"Was I on drugs when I said yes? Cause if I was it doesn't count." Charlie reminded him. He frowns when Santana simply smirks and shakes her head. She's not going to let him get out of this.

"Dad _five-year olds_ can ride this ride, stop being a baby." Bela shook her head grabbing his other arm. "It's totally safe."

"I should have sat you down to watch Final Destination, you wouldn't want to get on the ride either." Charlie grunted. He glanced at Santana. "Save me?" He mouthed.

Santana shook her head; he was being such a baby about this. "Charlie, _children_ ride this, which means it's not that scary."

Charlie frowned, "Bela. Max. I will give you all the money in my wallet. If I don't have to go on this ride."

"Dad stop—" Max began only for Bela to reach over and smack him.

"How much wallet is in your pocket?" Bela pressed. Their dad was rich and their mom was incredibly cheap when it came to their allowance. It would be nice to have some pocket money.

"Are you really attempting to bribe our children?" Santana groaned.

"Yes." Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, opening it. "I've got a hundred dollars." He wasn't some young athlete or some douchebag that carried thousands of dollars in his pocket. He had a black credit card and several other cards in his pocket however. He grins at his kids holding out two fifties,

Santana bit her lip as Max studied the money and looked at Bela who looked offended at the low ball offer. Their father was _cheap_ and it was about time they realized it. "If I were you, I'd take the money and make him go on the ride anyway."

"Wait what?" Charlie turned to look at his ex-wife as Bela grabbed the money and handed one over to Max.

"Mom's right, she gives us more money to buy Christmas presents," Bela sniffed indignantly and tugged on her dad's arm.

"I'll hold your hand dad," Max promised in a patronizing tone.

Charlie set his jaw, his son was patronizing him it was _humiliating_. "Fine, but I'm not buying you anything anymore. If you want some trinket, ask your mother."

Bela rolled her eyes, as soon as their dad started having fun he'd buy them whatever they wanted. "Alright fine. It's nearly our turn anyway. Come on dad, we never get to do fun things like this." It was their first family outing, and maybe if they both had fun it would remind her parents why they fell in love and they could stop with the weirdness. If there was one thing she hated was the back and forth.

Charlie eyed the ride as the last group of people in front of them got on it and blinked. "Where are the seatbelts?"

"There are no seatbelts." Santana sang lightly, holding CJ on her hip. The cast member had already pointed out where she needed to wait since CJ was too little to ride, but the look on Charlie's face was priceless.

"Dad you _fly all_ the time when you dunk, and you do other stuff that's dangerous all the time. You can _do it_!" Max pointed out.

Santana laughed loudly at the look of terror on Charlie's face, his eyes wide and his face taking on a weird shade of green as they reached the front of the line and the faux log pulled up into place. "I think—"

"No takebacks." Santana sang, trotting past them to her designated spot to wait with CJ as Max tugged Charlie into the seat beside him. After this she would definitely be going on the rest of the rides with her kids and she'd let Charlie babysit CJ. It was a win for both of them, she _loved_ roller coasters.

Charlie ground his teeth and gripped the bar in front of him tightly. Fuck this. He would show his kids that he wasn't afraid of anything. As soon as the ride jerks forward, any semblance of holding onto a shred of dignity flew out the window as he screams in surprise and nearly wets himself in fearful anticipation. He was going to die.

~O~

"So that's my plan to win your mother back, it's rather brilliant if I do say so myself."

CJ grunted at his father as he reached for more of his burger. Stuffing his face and getting ketchup all over his chin.

"Okay, so maybe standing around in just shorts and flashing her a smile isn't going to do anything, but I was on pain meds and it seemed like a good idea." Charlie muttered as he sipped on his own drink. His son looked adorable wearing the little Mickey Mouse hat.

"Daddy _shhh_ ," CJ grunted again as he stood up on his chair to grab his dad's french fries. Almost immediately he feels his dad reach out to steady him and he grabs the tray and drags it towards him before sitting down and eating some more.

"Et, tu CJ?" Charlie grunted only to have his son shoot him a wicked glare. "Fine, I'll keep quiet." Charlie muttered. He would simply focus on how much Disney World was _not_ the happiest place on earth because he was absolutely miserable and his shoulder hurt. He wasn't quite sure if the two were connected but he couldn't wait to get back to the villa and flop on his bed and go to sleep. He grabs some napkins and begins to attempt to clean CJ's face. "Here's some advice CJ, women don't find it attractive when you've got ketchup and mustard all over your face."

" _Hungy_." CJ replies, his mouth still full of half chewed fries.

Charlie laughs despite himself. "Yeah, your mom can train you to eat better when you're older." He rubs CJ's back affectionately; his son would be in a food coma soon enough. His phone buzzes on the table and he glances at it, quickly responding to the text from Santana asking where they were. "Max, Bela and mom are coming to eat with us. How does that sound?"

CJ smiles and picks up a fistful of fries and shoves them in Charlie's mouth. "Mommy! Daddy Hungy!" CJ says as he turns to see his mom and his siblings entering the restaurant.

Santana arches her brow, clearly amused at the fries still sticking out of Charlie's mouth. "And you're feeding him? You're a _good_ boy, yes you are."

"That was _so_ awesome!" Max said pumping his hands in the air. He hadn't been able to ride by himself like Bela, but it had been a lot of fun. "Mom was _so_ cool! I think she's cooler than you," he adds grinning. His mom hadn't screamed like a girl on a really slow ride.

Charlie scowled at his son and wrapped his arm around CJ who immediately struggled to get free so he could go to Bela who slid into the seat beside him. "CJ and I had _plenty_ of fun right CJ?"

CJ turned to look at his dad for a moment, before clutching at Bela. " _No!_ " He shouts. "Bela, daddy shh."

"Well," Santana began as she tapped Max's side making him shimmy further into the booth as she takes a seat. "I think you traumatized our son. I don't think he's ever told anyone to shush before." She studies him for a moment he really did look on the miserable side, He had never liked amusement parks to begin with. "Maybe next year we can go to Universal, you may be tall enough to ride all of their rides by next year," Santana offers. Maybe she'd get him interested in the Harry Potter books and it'd be something that they could all do together. She'd had her fun at Charlie's expense but the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves and this, what they were doing felt normal. It felt _right_.

"Don't worry dad we'll work our way up to the bigger rides when we go to Universal," Bela offered smiling at her dad and reaching over to poke him in the side.

Charlie grumbled and reached for his drink. "You guys are so mean to me. I'm the NBA finals MVP and I just won another ring. You should be treating me like a national treasure not mocking me because I don't like rollercoasters."

Max snickers and Bela doesn't try to hide her laugh as Santana reaches over and pats his hand gently. "It's adorable that you think that's going to stop us from laughing at you. If only I had a picture," Santana teases him, pausing for a moment when she feels his hand twist and gently take her hand as he runs his thumb along her knuckles for a second.

"Don't you dare try." He grumbles playfully. "The last thing I need is for you three to post something on Instagram that's a dirty lie."

"But what if we post a picture of you being scared of a kid's ride?" Bela teases. "You'll come on the teacups with us, won't you? Or is that too scary for you too?"

Charlie frowns even as his hand tingles with the remnants of Santana's touch. He shakes off the distraction and frowns dramatically at his daughter. She's always been the one he could count on to be on his side. "If I do, you'll stop teasing me right?"

Santana pulls her hand back a bit and looks at her daughter, trying to ignore the feeling. "Your father's probably going to hurl."

Max nods sagely, "You'll take a picture right?"

Charlie groaned, his whole family was out to get him. "When did this become make fun of dad day?"

"It's _always_ that day dad, right CJ?" Bela shook her head as she tried to clean CJ's mouth.

CJ laughs, and Santana reaches over immediately wondering how he got ketchup in his hair. It was so worth the mini fortune that she had spent to see her family like this. As much as she loathed to admit her finances weren't what they once were while she was married, but that hadn't stopped her from splurging. She was well aware that she was better off than most other people but she was also attempting to make a point that she doubted her ex-husband even realized. She could take care of herself and treat her children without his help. HGTV didn't pay her millions of dollars but she had made sure that every cent of this trip was paid with that money.

"Fine when you're with me for the rest of the summer it'll always be healthy eating and very little ice cream," Charlie mocked threatened.

" _Dad_." Max said horrified at the notion.

Charlie nods. "Kale salads for dinner, wheatgrass smoothie shots," Charlie continued grinning at Max.

"Oh come on Max, you know dad _hates_ eating healthy, he'll probably try it for a day and then give up when CJ starts throwing a fit," Bela reminded him.

Santana laughs and shakes her head, she'd be busy shooting a new season of her show which meant that Charlie would be taking over primary parenting duties. She glanced at him, it was times like this when she hated him the most for what he had done to their family. He had cheated, he had humiliated her and yet seeing him laughing and teasing the kids even though he was probably miserable being here reminded her why she loved him to begin with.


	44. Chapter 44

CJ smacked his father's back laughing as he did so. His fingers coated in a white cream as he rubbed it into his father's back. "Stinky! Daddy stinky."

Charlie scowled at his ex-wife, "When you offered to help me put on sunscreen I thought you were going to be the one touching me," he's close to pouting as Santana watches from her lounge chair as Max and CJ smear sunscreen all over his back.

Santana adjusts her sunglasses to look at him, "What you think I want to listen to you spend the rest of the week red as a lobster and whining about the pain? Or dealing with _your_ agent about how I let you out of the house without copious amount of sunscreen?"

"I had the _spray-on_ stuff!" Charlie insists grimacing when he feels CJ smack his back again laughing as he used his back as a canvas.

"Didn't you get a sunburn the last time that you bought that for yourself?" Bela pointed out from where she was sitting beside her mom. "It was actually really gross, your skin was peeling and everything."

"Thank you Bela," Santana said trying not to smile at his discomfort. "And so we're clear, I asked: 'do you need help putting sunscreen on your back?' I never _once_ said that I was going to help you put it on."

Charlie frowned as he stared at Santana, she had tricked him. When your ex-wife was in a bikini and a towel and holding a bottle of sunscreen offering to help, he had merely reached the natural conclusion and she _knew_ it. He was not pleased with this turn of events. He grumbled under his breath and rolled over onto his back so he could look at his son's as an idea formed. "Alright who wants to go with me to go get a pig?"

Max blinked at his father his eyes widening. "A pig—like a _pet_ pig?"

"Of course not Max, let's go get a pig to _eat_. I mean come on all that _meat_ and it'll be fun. It's what father's do with their sons." Charlie nods sagely as he sits up. He'd always wanted to roast a pig before.

His crazy idea is enough to get Santana to sit up, the last thing she needed was to deal with another vegan. Rachel was bad enough. "You are _not_ cooking a _pig_ Charlie. And no Max, it's not what father's do with their sons," Santana interrupts before Max can push for it. Charlie makes a face at that and she almost feels bad, but Russell was a shitty father and he knew that. "It's something you wanted to do with your dad, but that's because you have this weird love for _bacon_. All you damn Fabray's have it."

"It sort of sounds fun mom," Bela admits after a moment. She glances away when her mom shoots her a betrayed look, but it sounded _delicious_. "Except for the whole, you know it's something that men do with their sons." Bela glares at her father. "Do you think I can't handle it or something? Are you being sexist?"

Charlie grins. "My mistake, I didn't think it would be something you were interested in. I was wrong. Of course I was wrong. That's my _princess_. Team _Dad_ for the win!" Charlie pumps his good arm up in the air. "Let's go get ourselves a _pig_."

"So we get to pig out on _pig_?" Max asked a slow smile crossing his face. "That sounds _really_ cool."

Santana stared at her children for a moment, never had Charlie's genetic contribution ever been so pronounced. This was a _terrible_ idea. Charlie didn't know the first thing about roasting a pig, and even if he did this seemed like a _hazard_ waiting to happen. "Pigs take a _really_ long time to cook Charlie. Why don't you take Bela and Max to a butcher's and get ribs and burgers and hot dogs and chickens and we can have a barbeque. The owner does have a nice set up over there that doesn't involve us attempting to create a _spit_."

"A spit?" Max gasps, his eyes wide. It was that moment that Santana knew she had lost. "What's that?"

"Not what you're thinking." Santana folds her arms over her chest, making a valiant effort to stand firm. "A spit is how you cook pig."

"Can I spit on it?" Max looks up at Charlie, almost dancing with excitement. "I can spit on the spit so that I can pig out on pig."

Charlie laughs and shoots Santana a triumphant smirk. "Of _course_ you can."

"Cause that's _sanitary_ ," Santana muttered. This wasn't a competition, well it wasn't now that she was losing. "Wouldn't it be more fun to have a proper barbecue instead? Your father hasn't made his famous ribs in a while and you both loved them. Cause even you get a pig and a _spit_ , and everything you need to cook a full pig, you're not going to be able to eat it for what another two days?" She was grasping at straws now.

Charlie grinned as he pushed himself to his feet, "Well that's plenty of time to YouTube it right Bela?"

"Yeah, we can YouTube it and find out how to do it."

Santana groaned. "Fine, but when this _inevitably_ goes wrong don't say I didn't warn you." Santana grumbles. "CJ, come on let's go get your snack and then you can stick your feet in the wading pool."

The word snack causes CJ to perk up a bit as he pulls away from his father who had been keeping a firm hold on the seat of his pants to stop him from falling into the pool. It was a bit of a safety hazard, but Charlie had made sure to keep CJ within arm's reach, or keep a hand on his son. "Mommy _hungy!_ "

Santana rolls her eyes. "Of course you are." There was no doubt this kid was a Fabray. "Come on CJ let's let your father and your siblings do something incredibly silly. "

Charlie flashes Santana a grin and reaches for a shirt. "Alright let's go get some meat," Charlie grins hopping to his feet and pulling Max to his. They had bought a few supplies to stock the fridge with but he knew his family well enough to know that it wouldn't last, and they'd be getting delivery in about two days if they didn't do some serious grocery shopping.

~O~

Santana stared at her son, tilting her head as he slept with his butt in the air, a puddle of drool on the pillows, some half eaten carrots beside him and Go Diego Go playing in the background. He was his father's son and she was torn at how cute it was. It hadn't taken him long to pass out she had just gone to pick up a few of their things by the pool because it looked like it was going to rain. It had already been a few hours since Charlie and the kids had left to go find a pig and she didn't even want to begin to think about it. "Alright let's get you into your crib before you fall," Santana whispered to her son gently brushing his hair back. She does a quick check to make sure he doesn't need to be changed before picking him up.

With practiced ease she grabs a nearby blanket and manages to pull out the small bed from the couch. It was an excellent time to test if her son could start sleeping without the crib. He already understood and knew how to get out of it at home. It was dangerous and it was why he had a pile of pillows on the ground so he didn't end up hurting himself. Maybe she should invest in a car bed of sorts, he might actually like that. She places CJ back down and adjusts some pillows around him forming a bit of a barrier around the bed in case he wants to get up before grabbing her tablet so she could read beside him. It was a rare moment of quiet that she was going to enjoy and relax and maybe even start a book she'd never have time to finish.

She only makes it past the first four pages when her silence is interrupted by the sound of Bela and Max bickering like children as they approached the front door. She groans, and gets up to go and open the door for them. She opens the door half expecting to see them dragging a dead pig with them but instead they're carrying grocery bags, Charlie was down by the car attempting to balance a box under his good arm. It was probably the pig. It certainly looked big enough and she moves past her kids to help him with the box. " _Fuck_ Charlie," Santana grunts when she feels how heavy the box is. "How big is the pig?"

"We didn't end up getting one," Charlie admits. "You were right," He adds after a moment. "It still looked like a _pig."_

Santana glanced at her kids, they didn't _look_ horrendously traumatized. "What happened? And please tell me that you didn't create another vegan monster. The hobbit is enough."

"No, Max saw some baby pigs playing and he wanted one as a pet. I immediately changed my mind then, before he saw the pig and decided to become a vegetarian. We're _Fabray's_ we eat _meat_. It's what we do and no son of mine was going to become a vegetarian. You remember Quinn's foray into the world of vegetarianism? It ended _badly_." Charlie sniffed dramatically. "So instead we bought some ribs, freshly made bacon, eggs, a few chickens that we can roast, lots of fresh organic vegetables at a farmer's market, we also hit up a Wholefood's for a few other things."

"So what you're saying is that you were worried _you_ would want to become a vegetarian—" Santana teased. For all of Charlie's bluster he was a bleeding heart and it was just as likely that Max would fall in love with Babe or Wilbur as it was that Charlie would do the same.

Charlie narrows his eyes into a playful glare and grabbed the remaining items from the car. Normally he would have tried to get the entire carload in one trip without help, but he supposed his shoulder gave him a pass. "Blasphemy."

Santana grunted as she helped him move one of the boxes to the kitchen, noticing that the kids were apparently putting things away without her barking at them about it. "Should I be impressed that you managed to train our children?"

Charlie flashes Santana a knowing smile, "I didn't, they're _hungry_ and the sooner we put stuff away they _sooner_ we can start making dinner. We're making homemade personal pizzas. I thought CJ might like it and I got some of the low fat shredded cheese, and we'll put some vegetables on it. It's _brilliant_."

"Brilliant? I'd bet you fifty dollars CJ throws the vegetables in your face." Santana rolls her eyes at Charlie's excitement. CJ only ate vegetables if they were covered in cheese, but lately he seemed to have realized that he could eat everything _but_ the healthiest parts and spit them back out.

Charlie shakes his head. "That's a sucker's bet, but I bet _Daddy_ can get him to at least try them." He boasted confidently.

Santana snorts at Charlie's confidence. CJ was as stubborn as a mule and she had spent more nights than she'd like to admit picking vegetables off the floor and out of whatever hiding place CJ could find. "I'll take _that_ bet."

~O~

Charlie hums quietly to himself as he slathers sauce on the meat for the barbecue they would have tomorrow, hopefully ensuring that the meat would not only be tender and juicy, but that it would be incredibly flavorful. He glanced over at Max and Bela who had both crashed in front of the TV in the utter bliss of a food coma and smirks at his success. Turning back to the task at hand, he quickly wraps up the slab to keep the meat from drying out. He's so focused on his task he doesn't even hear Santana close the door to CJ's temporary bedroom and softly enter the kitchen.

Santana waits for a minute, and then shakes her head, "I hate you, you know."

He startles and smiles widely. "Why? Because I'm the king of vegetables?" He teases proudly. The key had been getting Max and Bela in on the game. Not that he'd admit it to Santana, but CJ cared far more about being like Max than pleasing his Dad. Whatever, he still was victorious.

"You've turned all my sons against me." Santana moans dramatically. "And for your information, next time you feed CJ barbecue sauce, _you_ get to give him a bath."

"That bad, huh?" Charlie smirks. He had definitely ended up on the better side of clean up time. CJ's high chair just had to be squirted down with a hose outside but his two-year-old had been covered head to toe in honey and barbecue sauce.

"The honey in his hair was a nice touch, but next time _you_ are on bath duty."

"He's asleep though?" Charlie asked, moving his meat slabs to the fridge as Santana collapses onto one of the barstools.

"Only after I styled his hair because he needed to be 'cool like Daddy'." She scoffs. Really it had been adorable and it took everything she had not to scoop up her baby and coo over him for hours. She had taken several pictures of it, though.

"Hey, he didn't get _that_ from me." Charlie gestures to their oldest two sprawled on the couch. " _That_ is my genetics. Primping before bed? That's all you."

"Like you didn't appreciate the primping before bed," Santana retorts immediately.

"I never said I didn't, I'm just saying it's all you." Charlie responds as he starts to make the burgers so that they could cook them for tomorrow. "What do you think of cheddar cheese and bacon stuffed burgers?"

"I think you're doing your best to make our kids fat," Santana responds eyeing him carefully. She had known that he could make breakfast food but this seemed above him. "When did you get so good at this stuff? Cooking I mean, you used to _burn_ spaghetti."

"Well, I had to learn how to cook if I wanted to take care of the kid's right?" Charlie answered, moving to wash his hands so there wasn't any cross contamination. "Do you want to start working on the Kebabs?"

Santana shrugged, she could stab some meat onto a stick. "Fine." Charlie pushes the cut up meat and vegetables towards her and she begins to work quietly. She can feel his eyes on her as he makes the burgers, putting them away when he's done. "This wasn't the _worst_ idea you've ever had, going on a vacation away from all the camera's and people."

Charlie grunts and smiles at her, "It feels good doesn't it? Being away? We should do every year."

Santana's quiet for a moment and glances back at Max and Bela for a moment, with CJ she was unsure of what he wanted other than food. He certainly didn't really have an opinion on the state of her marriage but her kids certainly did. "It sounds like a good idea, but it might give _them_ the wrong idea."

"Why does it have to be the wrong idea why can't we—"

"Speaking of our kids, we do actually need to figure out what they're doing for school next year. It's a bit late to start looking for a new school but you brought a championship to the city, I don't see why you can't _use_ it." It was a heavy handed way to change the topic but the week had been going well, and she wasn't going to start something now.

Charlie narrows his eyes but doesn't comment on the change on subject. "There are plenty of catholic schools that are relatively close by."

"We aren't sending our kids to be raised by Nuns." Santana snorts. Trust Charlie to sign Bela up for a nunnery.

Charlie rolled his eyes, "They have teachers and the like, but Bela will probably be expelled within the year," Charlie acquiesces. "We could homeschool them? It's an option right?"

"Yeah, that's _not_ happening. We are not gimping our children's social skills because it's _convenient_ for us," Santana rubbed her forehead. "Max needs structure. So does Bela."

"Boarding school—"

"No. We're not sending our kids away again just because it's convenient for us. There are schools in the Cleveland area that are _not_ religious, and we can work with," Santana informs him. "I can arrange some meetings but you _actually_ need to show up and be—you know _you_. Charming and _friendly_ —you know what makes you insanely popular with—the fans."

"You wanted to say women," Charlie pushes.

"Am I wrong? How many more shoots are you going to do with your shirt off? How many more interviews where you're in the most eligible bachelor's list—" Santana stops and exhales. She really didn't want to get into this with the kids sleeping nearby. They already knew far more than she was personally comfortable with them knowing.

"Santana, Kitty Wilde—"

" _Ugh_ , even her name sounds like a _porn-star_ name," Santana muttered. She didn't want to hear that name in her presence.

"I haven't been with anyone other than you in a long time, I don't really _want_ to be with anyone other than you so—just tell me what I have to do to earn your trust back." He pushes another burger down and motions around the room. "I miss— _this_. I miss doing stuff with the kids like this, I miss coming back to a full house—and I miss—"

"Stop right there." Santana holds up her hand, trying not to shout lest she wake their three terrors, "I _gave_ you a chance. You didn't end up doing it. Don't make me the bad guy that has to set the rules so that you can have your perfect family again. We've done the accidental baby thing, _several times_ actually, so this _isn't_ going to be some romantic comedy where you suddenly get everything you want because you _feel bad_."

"I don't just _feel bad_." Charlie interjects. "I—"

"Look. I love you. I have loved you my entire life and that doesn't just stop. But I don't trust you. I've moved on Charlie, you should too."

"Santana, you can't mean that—"

"I do." Santana spears the meat chunk and puts the skewer down. "I mean yeah, you're a good lay every now and again, but I _can't_ trust you. Not anymore. Not after all the _scandals_ our family has been through. So that's why I'm letting you go. Just, let's agree that the kids come first no matter what. So if you do get a girlfriend, I'd like to meet her before you introduce her to the kids. If I start dating someone again, as long as you can be an adult about it—then I'll do the same."

This had _not_ gone how he had planned for it to go. She seemed so sure of it, and the lack of cracks made him hesitate. He had wanted to turn up his natural charm, maybe get down on his knees and beg. But he was coming to a cold realization that Santana really didn't want him anymore.

Santana watched him carefully, grabbing a cut up piece of green pepper and skewering it. Biting down the clutch of emotion that bubbled in her throat. "Look, since we're finally discussing this like adults, I'm _aware_ that I can't stop you from having other children, but whatever you choose to do, those kids adore you and you aren't going to abandon them."

"I—" Charlie blinks and meets Santana's eyes for a moment. "Okay," he said finally and goes back to quietly working on the burgers. He doesn't know what else to say that isn't just going to be him begging Santana for another chance. "How are the kebabs?"

Santana narrows her eyes for a moment watching him, "Look, the kids expect us to give them the best vacation ever so please don't spend the next few days pouting and being miserable. It'll ruin their vacation; they were super excited for this—"

"Don't worry, I'm still going to be _fun_ dad. Now we just need to figure out how to get CJ to eat a bit healthier and get him moving around a bit more. Maybe we should also look into you know, potty training him when we get back? It'll save us a fortune in diapers." Charlie says, desperate to talk about _anything_ but this.

Santana watched him for a moment, trying to figure out what his game was before deciding to simply go along with the topic change. At least he was being civil about this. "You still haven't managed to get him to stop using his pacifier."

"I'm a basketball superstar, not a miracle worker. I was thinking of dipping it into something bitter when he wasn't looking. Until he doesn't want it anymore." Charlie said with a shrug. Or throwing the damn thing away and letting CJ hate him for a bit.

Santana nods, "His speech is getting better, but I think he's a bit behind so we really need to move on this. I know he can talk he just doesn't _want_ to." Talking about the kids and their problems was safe and Charlie didn't seem to be shutting her out, this would work.


	45. Chapter 45

Santana Lopez stretched in her car before tapping the steering wheel of her car. She was _exhausted_ , it had been a long day of shooting and with the sun beating down on her it had sapped her off most of her strength. Yet here she was stuck in traffic, instead of going back to her empty house. She was used to a few days without the kids but it had been a few weeks since their vacation had ended and Charlie had taken up the main parenting duties. Which meant that the kids were living with their father while she was busy working with Sam. The renovations that they were doing were going to be _bigger_ and better and her creativity was being tested in ways she wasn't sure it had before.

She should be enjoying her time off away from her children and the quiet that came with it, but she missed her children fiercely. Even Bela's general snarkiness, she missed having her daughter around making all those comments that never really helped. Yes, she had called them on facetime and had talked to all of them but she wanted to _hold them._ She hadn't seen her _baby_ in a week and she needed to make sure that they were well fed and were okay.

She pulls into Charlie's building frowning at her hypocrisy as she parks her car and heads towards the elevators, Charlie probably wouldn't say a word about the fact that she was stopping by unannounced but he'd probably use it to start showing up himself. It was only going to be _this_ once, she wasn't built like him she wasn't usually away from her kids for more than a few days and this was clearly the longest she'd been without seeing CJ. She was his mother and as far as she was concerned that meant that she could see her son whenever she wanted.

The elevator dings and Santana is about to exit when she realizes that it's not the right floor. She sighs as the door slides open and she can smell the pungent smell of chlorine from the pool Charlie had in his building. She immediately covers her nose as discreetly as she can when a voice causes her to look down. " _Mommy!_ "

"CJ! That's not your—oh it is, carry on." Charlie said blinking at Santana from where he was about to pull his son back from launching at a woman and getting her covered in the chlorine smell. He shifts the pool bag that he has on his shoulder.

"Mom! What are you doing here?" Max asks as he launches himself at his mom, his towel around his neck and his hair sticking up at odd angles clearly wet from the pool.

"I came to visit my _babies_ ," Santana says dramatically crinkling her nose as she picks CJ up and pulls Max towards her. She pauses and glances around for the snarky pre-teen one and glances at Charlie. She pauses for a moment, he'd gotten a haircut, now that she thought about it, it seemed that Max and CJ had both gotten them as well. "Where's Bela?"

Charlie bends down to pick up CJ's sandal that had fallen off, "With Brittany. Apparently Brittany's opening up a dance school here in Ohio. Apparently it was _Mike's_ idea. More importantly I'm not funding this little project of hers, Mike is. But I am paying for lessons for Bela." Charlie grumbles apparently he couldn't just dump his daughter with Brittany for free lessons. "She should be back in an hour or so."

"Mommy! I swim! Big boy!" CJ informed her puffing out his chest as he hugs her neck tightly.

"Yes you are, you're my big boy aren't you?" Santana coos looking at Charlie. Taking CJ swimming was _ambitious._ "How—?"

"Did you know that they make swim diapers? I didn't, till last week when we went to Toys R Us." Charlie informs her slipping CJ's shoe back on his foot. "We've been swimming every day, he likes it and its good exercise for him." Charlie ran his hand along CJ's head. It also had the advantage of putting his son out like a night every night.

"Yeah and dad got us _loads_ of new water guns and nerf blasters! And remote control cars! Plus, he's signing me up for basketball camp!" Max adds happily. It was going to be so awesome being taught by some of the greatest players. Even his dad was going to give a few lessons.

"And you got your hair cut too?" Santana reached again to touch Max's head pausing for a moment and looking at Charlie. "How'd you manage to get CJ to sit down for one of those."

"We went to a barber! Dad got a hot towel on his face and they trimmed his beard and it was so cool!" Max said excitedly. "So then they did mine and then CJ wanted to get his done. Dad says that's what fathers do with their sons. Take them to the barber to get haircuts and get their beards trimmed. When I grow my beard in dad said he'd take me to get it trimmed."

"I see, and what type of activities are you planning to do with your daughter?" Santana asked as the door to the elevator opened to Charlie's floor. Of course Charlie would fall in line and do boy activities with the guys but he did have a daughter and she didn't want Bela to feel left out.

"Yoga." Charlie mumbles.

"Excuse me?" Santana blinks turning to him her eyes wide as her lips twitched upward.

"Dad's doing yoga with Bela every morning. It's really funny and he made Bela promise not to take pictures," Max fills their mother in on the fun they've been having with dad.

Charlie opens the door to his apartment and dumps the swimming stuff on the ground beside the door kicking it away, he'd have to do laundry tonight if they were going swimming tomorrow. He was _exhausted_ and he still had to make dinner and help Bela with her studies and bathe and put CJ to bed, which generally meant that he'd be reading a story or _three_. Then playing video games with Max, and finally cleaning up and checking in with Tina. It was his off season but that didn't mean that he was free to do whatever he wanted. He still had meetings and commercials to shoot. Charlie sighs and flicks his eyes to Santana who is kissing CJ's cheeks. If this was what she had to deal with on a day to day basis, then he had a newfound respect for her. "Hey San? Do you think you can give CJ a bath? I need to start dinner."

"Can I help with dinner?"

"Yeah after you have a bath, you can use my bathroom okay? Just don't break anything." Charlie pats Max's back and pushes him forward so he can hit the showers.

Santana nods, bathing CJ was a relatively easy task, he _liked_ getting clean unlike Max. "Let's go give you a bath CJ, and then bother daddy for food."

"I _hungy_ ," CJ repeats as he looks at his dad. "Food!"

Charlie rolled his eyes and pulled out the turkey burgers and a few vegetables, including the potatoes that he had peeled this afternoon with Bela.

Santana turns to walk to the kid's bathroom when she stops, she can't help herself. "You know the kids used your back as a canvas right?"

"I _know_ ," Charlie grunts his kids had been snickering at him all day and he had caught their handiwork in the mirror before they had gone swimming. "I fell asleep this afternoon when CJ was taking his nap and he woke up before me and decided to color on my back. Max and Bela decided to help him. It could be worse. At least it's not _dicks_."

"Well," Santana begins trying not to laugh. "It would be a self-portrait if that was the case."

"Ha. Ha." Charlie grumbles. It _may_ have been better if they were dicks, at least then it wouldn't be a unicorn rainbow on his back along with whatever CJ had been trying to draw with his markers. He cursed himself again for being able to sleep through anything.

~O~

Charlie sighed scratching his chest, he still felt rather gross. He had only a few moments before dinner to wash off most of the chlorine, but now that he had finally put Max to sleep and dealt with CJ who had woken up and had gone on a mini rampage while he had been attempting to help Bela with her homework, all while Santana had sat down and _judged_ his parenting, he was ready for a proper shower. Santana hadn't said anything directly to him apart from her usual commentary and snarky comments, but he was hungry, exhausted and Santana just watching them in their routine had been nerve-wracking.

It was obvious that Santana planned to crash on his bed for the night, and he was far too tired to argue with her. He still needed to get the laundry done and do the prep for tomorrow's breakfast and check what the plan was for the day. Hopefully it rained and they could all have a lazy day tomorrow. He'd have to wear a shirt so his kids didn't draw on him, or perhaps he could dump them on Tina and spend a few hours sleeping. He walks into his room to get something clean to wear and his eyes travel to his ex-wife who was currently on his bed wearing one of his jerseys and _probably_ nothing else. "Uh—"

"You know I hate you sometimes," Santana grumbled watching him. She had expected him to not be _great_ at this, to flounder a bit. She struggled with it sometimes, parenting was difficult especially when it came to giving them equal attention. "How is this _easy_ for you?"

"It's _not_ , I just like spending time with my kids. Even Bela, who I think is plotting my demise because I'm making her do some extra problems to make sure she gets it. I think her biggest mistake is that she doesn't show her work." Charlie responds as he heads to his closet to grab some shorts and some underwear. "I need a shower; I'll be on the couch okay?" He offers. He doesn't really wait for her to say anything as he heads towards his bathroom and pulls off his shorts after closing the door and heading for the shower. If he didn't have any appointments tomorrow was definitely going to be a relaxing day with the kids.

Santana watches him leave and chews the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. It wasn't right, it was stupid and it would just be confusing. But who the hell was she to listen to common sense? Personally she was insulted that he had simply gone straight to the shower instead of attempting to try and sleep with her, but he had never been good at seducing her. He probably would continue to miss what she wanted unless she spelled it out for him, which was exactly what she planned to do. She waited for a moment after she heard the water running and she was sure he was actually taking his shower before slipping off his bed and heading straight to the bathroom. If his shoulder wasn't still injured then she'd simply join him in his shower, but she wasn't going to risk injuring him for a bit of fun. So instead she does the mature thing and simply swipes his clothes pausing for a moment before deciding to grab a few towels leaving only a hand towel.

She dumps everything in his closet and quickly jumps back on the bed trying to find the right position to entice him to join her on the bed. She pauses for a moment before rolling her eyes and picking up his tablet, it was Charlie. She could wear a paper bag and he'd still get turned on at the idea of having sex. She pauses at the password on his tablet and tries Bela's birth year, followed by Max's then CJ's she crinkles her nose before trying the year they were married in. She pauses for a second, taking in the fact that it was his password before deciding to snoop on his tablet, she really couldn't help herself. She had given him his privacy once, only to have him _cheat_ on her. She frowns he at least had the _knowledge_ to clear his search history, so she couldn't figure out what porn he was watching. The tablet was filled with mostly educational games, which were aimed at toddlers and a few sports apps for Max to look at probably. She tilts her head when the sound of running water switches off, and tosses his tablet onto the table beside his bed.

" _Santana!_ "

Santana laughed, covering her mouth and clearing her throat when she heard him immediately make for the bathroom door. "What?"

"Give me back my clothes!"

"No! Come and get them."

" _Santana_."

Santana grinned when she noticed him open the door a bit so he can glare at her. She smirks at his discomfort, "They're in your closet," she says after a moment.

Charlie scowls a bit, his closet was all the way across the room and he only had a small towel that wasn't going to help him hide his nudity. "Come on just throw me a pair of shorts."

Santana rolled her eyes, "No, and because you're being _you_. I'm _naked_ under this jersey by the way so why don't you hop to it and get busy."

"You said that you didn't want to try again—"

"I don't, I did however say that occasionally you were a good lay. Which is what I want to do. I want to have sex. So _drop_ the towel and hurry up."

Charlie hesitates for a moment, sex sounded nice right about now, but he doubted this was going to be about his pleasure and rather about getting Santana off. It also wasn't what he wanted from her. Well, he did want to have sex with her but he wanted them to be a family again. "Santana—"

Santana's eyes narrow for a bit, "Charlie, nothing has really changed. So we can either do this on occasion or you can go back to your little side pieces."

Charlie frowns, there wasn't anyone else in his life. He didn't even have time to meet new people and even when he did they simply weren't Santana. It's a conundrum but every single time they had attempted to work out a purely sexual relationship when they were in university and during high school when they had broken up for like six months, it had always ended up with them getting back together. So maybe doing what Santana wanted and making sure he did an excellent job of pleasing her sexually was his ticket back into her good graces. He sighs and shuffles out of the bathroom letting the inconsequential towel drop to the ground. "Fine you win," he grumbles.

"I always do," Santana grins shuffling up on the bed as she watches him stalk towards her completely naked.

~O~

"Bela I hungy," CJ whined as he tugged on Bela's hand leading his sleepy sister towards their father's bedroom. "I hungy! Daddy sleepy. I _hungy_ and daddy sleepy."

Bela groaned as she followed her brother, wondering why her father had decided to get him a little car bed that he could come and go as he pleased. "Right," she mumbled as she yawned. He had probably tried Max first before realizing that he couldn't open his door and had found the one door that was open hers. Bela knocked on the door to her father's bedroom, if he wasn't on the couch then it probably meant that her parents had hooked up again. They would deny it of course, but she wasn't an idiot and her parents were really bad at hiding it from them.

CJ pulls away from his sister and begins to bang his fists on the door. "Daddy! I hungy! Daddy I HUNGY!" He shouts loudly, close to wailing for his father.

Bela sighs wanting to simply walk back to bed but CJ probably wouldn't let her get any sleep, she tries the door and opens it once she realizes that it's unlocked and sticks her head inside trying to keep her brother back in case her parents were naked in bed together. Instead she gets an eyeful of her father's naked ass on his bed and she immediately pulls back disgusted. "Gross—I mean come _on_ you have children!" Bela bitches closing her eyes and staring at the ceiling. She'd never get that image out of her head. "Max you need to wake dad up so he can make us food." she grumbles; she wasn't going anywhere near her father when he was butt naked on the bed.

CJ on the other hand wasted no time in slipping past his sister and crawling into his father's room where he quickly got to his feet and raced towards his bed. "Daddy. Food. I hungy, food daddy, food!" CJ began as he smacked his dad in the face over and over again.

"CJ! What have I said about hitting," Charlie groaned trying to roll over.

"Dad you're _naked_!" Bela shouted at him.

It's enough to get Charlie to open his eyes and glance down at his nudity and immediately grabs a pillow to cover himself. He pauses and looks over at the empty spot beside him. Santana had totally bailed on him this morning. Probably so the kids wouldn't make any snarky comments. "Sorry, I was so tired last night I must have just showered and collapsed on the bed," he lies.

"Daddy _food_." CJ informs him stomping his foot dramatically.

Charlie sighs for a moment. "Okay CJ let me put on pants and a shirt and then I'll make food alright?"

CJ doesn't listen instead he grabs onto his father's hand and tries to pull him out of bed. "Food!"

Charlie scoops his son up and looks over at Bela who had closed the door to give him some privacy as he drops the pillow and goes to get some clothes. "Yeah, I heard you. You're hungry," Charlie sighs grabbing some underwear and shorts and looking at CJ who is now clinging to him. "CJ let me put you down for a moment I need to wear _pants_."

"No. Food!"

Charlie groaned and headed back to the bed so he could sit down to pull on some clothes, so he could put on his clothes. "I'm sorry little guy, but I was really sleepy last night. And he'd been busy until early this morning. They were definitely making today a lazy day.

"Daddy bad! No food! No play." CJ scolded.

Charlie sighed and finished pulling up his pants and underwear grabbing a shirt as he headed to make his son some breakfast which would probably just be a bowl of cereal. "Yes, I know bad daddy. I didn't wake up and present you with food your highness," Charlie drawls as he opens the door. He flushes when he sees his daughter standing there an irritated look on her face. "I'm sorry for mentally scarring you. Won't happen again."

Bela puffed out her cheeks. "Well when you inevitably get mom pregnant again, I want a baby sister. I'm so tired of being surrounded by _boys_ ," she snaps and stomps back to her bedroom.

"Baby?" Charlie's eyes widen a bit at this statement and he looks at CJ.

" _I baby_." CJ informs him bluntly. "Food."

"I miss your pacifier," Charlie grumbles and heads to the kitchen with his son to make him food.


	46. Chapter 46

Bela glanced up from where she was currently doing world problems that her dad had given to her as homework. He had been pretty lax about the whole thing ever since CJ had caught the chicken pox, her baby brother had been miserable and the situation had been made considerably worse when Max had gotten it two days later. The whole apartment smelled like calamine lotion, and it was generally filled with whining from Max and tears from CJ who didn't like being sick and itchy.

The best part about this whole fiasco was that her parents were actually getting along and her mom had come to visit every night. She'd usually be gone in the morning because she had to get to work on set bright and early, but her parents were sharing the same bed which _had_ to be a good sign. "Dad?"

Charlie glanced at Bela scratching his stomach absentmindedly as he made breakfast, CJ couldn't really eat solids and it was the first time his son had rejected food that was in solid form. He also had a bit of a fever which was why his food had to be a bit on the cold side. Both of his sons had oven mitts on their hands and he was keeping them on the couch where he could watch them, not scratch. "I'm sorry Bela, I know it's been rough the past few days but they'll get better soon. I'll make you something to eat as long as you don't tease your brothers with it."

"It's fine dad, I'm not worried about that exactly," Bela explained, dismissing his concern with a wave of her hand, she'd already had the chickenpox and she had a sneaking suspicion that she was the one that had brought it home with her. It seemed to be going around Aunt Britt's dance class. With her dad busy she basically got to do whatever she wanted, "I just noticed you've been scratching your chest a lot lately—are you _okay_?"

Charlie glances down at his hand and immediately pulls it away from his body, he had woken up itchy but hadn't given it much thought. "Adults don't _get_ chickenpox Bela and I'm sure I already had it. Brittany and Quinn were always sick and they always got me sick growing up," he informed her dismissively.

" _Daddy_ ," CJ whines squirming on the couch as he tried to remove the socks on his hands. "Itchy. I itchy."

"I know CJ, I know. Just hold on bud and I'll read you a story alright," Charlie called out. His son was close to tears, and was miserable, he had spent most of last night with both Max and CJ tucked between him and Santana. He hadn't been feeling so hot himself last night but CJ and Max's wellbeing came first. Charlie grabs the box of yogurt that Santana had brought over and heads over to his son, he'd make pancakes for Bela and he tears it open for CJ who looks up at him with his puffy cheeks and tears in his eyes. Charlie bites his lip and looks over at Max who is simply just sleeping on the couch in his basketball boxers, with socks on his hands. "Have some yogurt okay buddy?" Charlie says bending down and gently rubbing his hand along CJ's hair. His body was pink and he smelled _awful_ but it did seem to help with the scratching.

CJ lunged forward wrapping his arms around his dad's neck as he began to cry softly, "Daddy, itchy" he whines.

Charlie sighs and picks him up, rocking him gently. "Okay Bela, have some cereal, you get to pick what we order in for dinner tonight alright?"

"Right," Bela says deciding that she was done attempting to do the homework as she pushes it away and goes to get herself some food. She'd much rather be curled up watching some Disney movies with the boys then doing homework. She grabs the remote before flopping into the beanbag chair that her dad had recently gotten, she assumed because he wanted to be _hip_. She immediately heads into Netflix and picks out Mulan and lets it play immediately pulling out her phone so she could play on it. "So, aren't you and mom supposed to start doing like school interviews soon for us?"

Charlie turned to look at Bela for a moment as he struggled to get his son to _eat_ the yogurt as he kept spitting it back up onto his shirt. "Yeah, interviews, I have to wear a _tie_ and everything. Your mom even wants me to wear my first ring, apparently there's very little use in having an ex-husband who is a championship winning NBA player if I don't play it up sometimes." Charlie shook his head deciding to give up on the yogurt and simply rub CJ's back. He frowns and scratches his stomach and chest as best as he can.

Bela watched her dad for a moment, he wasn't very good at being discreet and she sighs before deciding to text her mom that she suspected her dad had chicken pox. What she wasn't expecting was her mother to call her back within seconds. "Mom?"

' _How the hell does he have chickenpox? Adults don't get chickenpox, it's something you get when you're a kid. This explains far too much_.'

"I said I think he might have it, he's been scratching his chest and stomach a lot." Bela explains and sighs when she notices her dad staring at her. "What? You have been and I was worried."

"I'm _fine_."

"You said that about your shoulder remember when you tried to lift—" Bela began.

' _Bela, don't mock your father for his bad judgement. I need you to take a look at his chest and send me a photo—yes I'm aware that it might squick you out but he's the reason your brother doesn't believe in shirts."_

"He's got CJ on him and he's glaring at me." Bela paused for a moment before deciding to switch the call to facetime. "Hey CJ do you wanna talk to mommy?"

It's enough to get CJ to turn to her and hold out his sock covered hands. "Mommy! Where mommy!"

Charlie puts his son down and lets him toddle towards Bela sighing at the state of his shirt that had yogurt all over it.

"Take your shirt off Charlie, let me have a look." Santana informed him when she saw him sitting on the couch.

Charlie frowned, "You know that's what you said and then nine months later Max was born," he muttered but did as she asked, pulling his shirt up and over his head.

"Okay, that's _gross_! And I'm talking about the fact that you're talking about sex and the fact that dad's chest is covered in pox," Bela uttered handing her phone to CJ.

"Mommy! I dun like it."

Santana smiled at her son, her heart breaking at his tear stained cheeks. He had been miserable and she simply wanted to take care of him and make him feel better. "Don't worry CJ, mommy will be there soon. But I'm going to call your abuelo and abuela to come take care of you okay?"

"Santana I'm fine to take care of the kids," Charlie began as he began to claw at his body.

"Bela, get some oven mitts and stick them on his hands," Santana groaned. It wasn't that she didn't trust him to take care of the kids, but if they were all sick it would be best to have a bit of help and she doubted that Bela was going to nurse them for more than five minutes.

"I don't _need_ oven mitts—"

"He says as he continues to scratch like a maniac," Bela finishes for her dad heading to the kitchen to do as her mom says.

"Santana, I don't have room for your parents at my place."

"So take the kids to my place, I'll call Tina and have her let you in, I'm going to call your cleaner to have your entire apartment disinfected, get the sheets laundered as well." Santana groans, hopefully he would bounce back from this quickly because she needed him when they started to actually make the rounds in finding their children a school to go to.

"I'm not sleeping on that _awful_ bed of yours," Charlie insists immediately.

"Fine you and the boys can build a fort in my living room, we'll call it the quarantine zone, I'll have Tina pick up a few things, just for that. We'll have oatmeal baths and oven mitts galore." She smirks at the pathetic look all three of her boys give her and decides that no matter what Charlie says, she's calling in the cavalry.

~O~

The very first thing that Santana did the moment she got home was head directly to her living room, ignoring the fact that her parent's car was in her driveway, ignoring the fact that Tina still seemed to be around. But she needed to see her babies. She bit her lip when she entered the living room noting that all her furniture had been moved away to make room for a huge inflatable mattress, which was currently surrounded by pillows and a huge blanket in a makeshift fort. Bela had even doodled a little sign that read quarantine, and the entire room smelled of calamine lotion. And there laying on the bed were her three boys. Charlie looked absolutely _miserable_ and ridiculous with his oven mitt hands. CJ seemed to have fallen asleep on his father's lap and Max was sitting there sipping on what appeared to be a smoothie.

"Mom!" Max whined looking at his mom.

Santana approached him slowly and bent down to kiss his cheek, "How are you feeling?"

Max shrugged, "It sucks, and it's boring and I'm so _itchy_. And I'm hungry but I can't eat anything but this stupid smoothie because my mouth hurts and food tastes funny."

Santana nods, "I'll see what I can do, alright maybe something soft. Just let me check on CJ and I'll go talk to your abuelos." Max nods and Santana moves over to look at her baby boy and reaches to pick him up only to have Charlie shake his head. "Charlie—"

"It itches. CJ being on my lap means I can't scratch it. Your dad said if I did it might get infected and fall off or something."

Santana stared at her ex-husband torn between laughing and shaking her head. "My dad was messing with you about it falling off. Probably not about the infection, you're an adult and you're supposed to be an example for your kids so _don't scratch_."

"It's easy for you to say, you don't have bloody blisters all over your body. And you don't smell horrible. What the hell is in this pink stuff?"

Santana rolls her eyes and despite Charlie's protests picks up her youngest and kisses CJ's cheek, rubbing his chubby soft skin with her fingertip before placing him back in Charlie's lap. "There," Santana says looking at Charlie who immediately stuck out his own lips for a kiss. She stares at his lips for a moment and then glances at Max who was snickering into his smoothie and simply pats Charlie on the head. "You have herpes around your mouth." She informed him bluntly before heading to the kitchen to talk to her parents.

She finds her parents in the kitchen, talking softly over a cup of coffee. "Where's Bela?" She asks the first question that comes to mind. She hopes that it will be enough to avoid listening to her parent's disapproval at having come and provide Charlie with support.

"She's upstairs 'avoiding the plague' as she said. She seems to take after you in dramatics," Carlos said dryly taking a sip of wine as he watched his wife making a broth for her grandkids. He watches as Maribel turns to Santana and sighs inwardly. He knew where this conversation was going, but he didn't really have anyone to talk to.

"Are you getting back together with him?" Maribel demands immediately.

"Excuse me?"

"Your son is a talkative young boy, and it came up that you've been sharing a bed with your _ex-husband_."

Santana scoffed and reached for the bottle of wine, there was no way that she could handle her mother _judging_ her. "The kids were sick, I fell asleep while helping Charlie, because I'm busting my ass every day. That isn't a sign that we're getting back together. We're _working_ together for our kids."

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Maribel scoffs. "Please, Santana. I'm your mother, not some stupid interviewer. You've loved that boy since you were fourteen and you look at him the same way now as you did back then. So I ask again, are you getting back together with him?"

"Of course I'm not. He knows that. The only reason he's here is because he's really sort of pathetic when he's sick and he will scratch when he's by himself," Santana shook her head. "I got him the damn inflatable bed so he wouldn't bitch about the guest bedroom, because apparently he likes to sleep on clouds." Santana responds tersely. Things between her and Charlie were finally good. She didn't need her parents screwing this up, nor did she need them questioning her motives.

"You really need to be careful then." Maribel counsels, shooting a glare at Carlos that clearly tells him to back her up on this. "Those kids don't need any more confusion or upheaval in their lives."

"Charlie is free to date whoever he chooses; we've worked it out that way. We're actually working together on this parenting thing. The kids understand that."

Carlos nods waiting until Santana had taken a sip of her own wine before speaking up. "Of course, co-parenting is a good thing. However, I want to know when to expect our next grandchild. You've never been great at remembering to take your birth control pills." When Maribel turns to look at him in shock as Santana sputters he shrugs. "Max might be talkative, but your daughter is bribable just like you were at your age. Haggled me up to a hundred dollars before she talked."

"That little _shit_!"

" _Santana Maria Lopez_ ," Maribel snaps at her daughter immediately.

"What? She's _my_ daughter and if anyone can call her a little shit it is _me_." Santana insists defensively. "Heaven knows you called _me_ a little shit more times than I can count."

"The difference is; you _were_ a little shit." Maribel retorts. "Bela is my beautiful perfect granddaughter. If you don't want her telling us about your love life, then maybe you should do a better job at keeping it _private_."

Santana exhales noisily, "We talked about it and he understands. He's free to find his _own_ girlfriend and I'm free to look for other people and—"

Carlos looked at Maribel, "My money is on a girl. Also a summer wedding," he says in an unimpressed tone.

"That's _not_ going to happen."

"Did you take your birth control this morning?"

"He has herpes on his dick!"

"That's a no." Carlos snorts in amusement. "If you want to work things out your mother and I will support you—Maribel, we'll support her."

"There's nothing going on between us, we're not dating. We're not getting back together, I'm relieving stress. He's a good stress reliever. He's free to date other people because I don't care. The kids know it, and yes I know they hope that something will happen but nothing is happening. We're working on being friends again, and if that means taking care of him then so be it." She narrows her eyes at her parents, annoyed that they are finding this whole situation so amusing. "Now I'm going to go murder my daughter, so it's time that you leave."

Maribel nodded towards Carlos, they had figured she'd try and do something like this. "Your father's been drinking, and we're not driving up here tomorrow to help you watch your kids and ex-husband because you've got to work. So instead of throwing a temper tantrum, why don't you say hello to your daughter and help me in the kitchen."

Santana scowled at her mother before skulking upstairs. It didn't matter how old she got her mom still treated her like a child and it was _infuriating_. Of all the times for Charlie to be sick, or she'd be bitching at him about it.


	47. Chapter 47

**AN: I did it again, apologies. 45, 46, 47 are now in order.  
**

* * *

Santana watched as Charlie stepped out of his car, and bit back a groan, she _knew_ she should have gone home with him and helped him pick out a suit. He looked haggard, but that was to be expected considering that he was recovering from a bout of chickenpox. Most of the blisters had crusted over, and he was no longer rubbing his body on every surface, while the kids had found it amusing she had needed to disinfect everything a few times. "God you look terrible," Santana can't help but comment and rearranges his suit so it was on straight. She smiles despite herself, he had never been the best dresser without her.

"Was it really important that I be here?" Charlie asks he winces when Santana raises a brow at him. "I know that this is important for our _kid's sake,_ but _come on_. I brought a championship to this city and I'm sick, I should be able to stay in bed, why the hell couldn't we reschedule this?"

Santana rolls her eyes at his whining and straightens his tie. She had tried to reschedule it, but it hadn't panned out like she wanted. "Lakeridge is one of the better schools, and it goes from K-12, so when it's CJ's turn we don't have to look for a school for him. The ratio between student and teacher is seven to one, which means that Bela can get the extra attention that she needs and maybe Max won't be dreadfully bored in class. They have a decent basketball program and an excellent soccer program—didn't you read the pamphlets?"

"There were pamphlets?"

Santana scowled slightly, "You're the one that insisted that you wanted to be a part of the kids' lives and part of the decision making process. That means getting over yourself and doing things even if you don't want to. You're not even contagious anymore."

" _I'm crusty_." Charlie hisses indignantly, it still itched something terrible, it no longer mattered if he was no longer infectious.

Santana bit her lip trying not to smile. "You're _fine_. Would it have killed you to wear a suit?"

"Ha-ha." Charlie laughs dryly. "Yes. It might at this point."

Santana shook her head and looked to the school it was a decent size, and it seemed to have the usual drop off section, she was sure there were plenty of pamphlets to read, and meeting future teachers and parent teacher meetings that she would need to plan. She flicks her eyes over to Charlie who was scratching his stomach and smacks his arm hard. "Stop that."

"Make me."

Santana grabs his wrist, "We've got three children and I don't even think one of them has ever said that. So stop acting like a child. We need to impress these people."

"Why? They're the ones that should want our kids," Charlie grumbled. His kids were—great. More or less.

"That may be the case but we're applying super late. They don't even have the space for us really which is why I said to bring your ring!"

"I think wearing my ring about is tacky," Charlie reminded her following her into the school.

"Yes well, our kids—"

"Also think that me wearing my ring is tacky." Charlie narrows his eyes as Santana fiddles with the edge of her ridiculously expensive blouse.

"Max doesn't," Santana responds after a moment. "CJ has no opinion so basically you're trusting Bela who already thinks we're the most embarrassing people on the planet. In other words, her opinion is suspect because there's already a bias there"

"Well good. I've been trying to mortify her for years. I'm glad to know it's finally working." Charlie grumbles and follows Santana. "Do you know where we're going? Or are we just going to walk around in circles, because those lockers look like they're the perfect size to scratch this place in the middle of my back."

Santana turns to him flushing in embarrassment despite no one being around, "This is why I don't take you places!" She hisses.

"You take me to plenty of places, but again. I'm _crusty_." Charlie snapped back. "Everything itches, how hard was it to reschedule this thing? It's not as if the world doesn't know that I've got chickenpox. The guys posted it on Instagram."

Santana rolled her eyes and went to retort but was stopped when a woman turned the corner. "Mr. Fabray, Ms. Lopez, I was just looking to see if you got lost. The principal is waiting for you in her office, can I show you the way?"

"That would be great." Santana plasters on her show smile and drags Charlie along behind her. They're led down a long clean corridor and Charlie scratched idly at his lower back. The woman points to two chairs and then slips into the office without another word.

"This place is so stuffy. I feel like I'm fifteen again and waiting for the principal to yell at us for being in the supply closet during Math." Charlie sighs.

Santana can't help but smile at the memory, "You were caught with your pants down remember?"

Charlie scowled, turning a bright red at the memory, "I was fifteen and I was promised things, which by the way you never delivered on. So not only did I get in trouble, you also didn't give me a blowjob like you promised."

"My dad wanted to kill you when he found out," Santana muses. "Mom immediately put me on birth control."

"Not like you're any good at taking it," Charlie mumbles.

Santana swatted him on the arm, she had three children, none of which were planned. Happy accidents as her mom liked to say. She pauses, they had never really talked about it. "Don't be a—"

"Mr. Fabray, Mrs. Lopez," a voice said from behind them causing Charlie to get up and turn at the very feminine voice. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Principal Stann."

"Please. Call me Santana, and this is Charlie."

"Then call me Elaine. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Charlie takes the principal's offered hand and doesn't have to force a charming smile. He had been expecting some ancient stuffy afghan-knitting grandma. But Principal Stann reminds him a lot of Santana. She's a little taller a dressed in a perfectly tailored professional suit, but he shakes himself and glances over at Santana who is watching him expectantly. "Hi. We're really excited for this opportunity."

"It's not every day that 'Cleveland's Hero' requests a chance to send his kids to our academy."

Charlie laughed at this that's what the papers had dubbed him. He thought it was a bit ridiculous considering, it was loud and awkward. "It was a team effort—" He mumbles; he can feel his ears heating up. He wasn't usually this modest.

Elaine smiled, "And that's exactly what this academy believes in. It takes a village to raise a child, and we believe in teaming up with the parents to help make sure that your children do their absolute best. We're a community here at Lakeridge. How about I show you some of our facilities? I read the files on your two children, Max and Isabela."

Santana winced, finally paying attention and deciding to ignore Charlie's weirdness. "Yes Max is _brilliant_ , he's especially good at math, and he loves playing basketball just like his father. Isabela—she likes to be called Bela is struggling a bit, but we've managed to get her grades up, we've gotten her tutors and everything. We want our kids to succeed. She's also an athlete and loves playing soccer."

Charlie nodded when Elaine looked at him, not quite sure what he needed to add to that. "Right, their last school, it wasn't a good fit. Peer pressure, an incident with a party, Bela just needs a bit of attention is all. So does Max, he gets bored in class. The small class sizes should help with that." When Santana nods, he knows he did a good enough job to avoid another discussion about how he wanted to be part of the decision making.

"Well, the children of a star athlete, playing sports is always a welcome—"

"Max isn't that good at basketball," Santana immediately point out and Charlie raises a brow at her. "We just encourage him because he loves it so much." She didn't want Elaine to have any expectations.

"He's _eight_." Charlie reminded her gently. "I'm sort of hands off there, I didn't want him growing up thinking that he had to be an NBA player or anything. Maybe when he's a bit older and realizes it I'll start putting a bit more pressure, but I didn't start playing basketball till after I hit 6'2." Charlie informs her,

"Well at his age group it's more about having fun and learning the basics, it's not until they get to middle school and the high school level that it starts getting competitive," Elaine informed them. "Though I hope that maybe you can offer a few pointers out to our coaches. Or maybe do an assembly, if you have time. We like the parents to be active in the school."

Santana smirked, they were in, "He'd love to."

"I would?" Charlie asks and grimaces when Santana's sharp pointy elbows find his abdomen. "Right of course, as long as my schedule permits. I get super busy but maybe after a practice or something we can arrange something. Though I think my daughter would find it mortifying."

Elaine laughs, "I know I probably would find it mortifying if my dad came to an assembly. He was a firefighter, so he did of course and first thing he did was wave to me in the audience. It was humiliating."

Charlie grins, "Perfect."

Elaine flicks her eyes to Santana, "We use all the latest technology here, at Lakeridge to make sure that your kids get ahead in life. When you enroll, depending on the age of the child in question. We upgrade our infrastructure every few years to make sure that they get the very best. And this year we're also introducing an after school tutoring program. It's not mandatory, but it's for the students to come to see the teachers that they need help in."

"Of course, that makes sense, and it sounds like a brilliant idea. It'll really help Bela," Santana says. There were so many opportunities for Bela and Max and this seemed like the perfect school for them.

"But I'm sure with involved parents like both of you, Bela would do well in any environment." Elaine assured.

Charlie smirks. "I don't know; I've always been awful at grammar."

"Maybe you can sit in on one of our classes then." Elaine shoots back.

Charlie laughs loudly and Santana fights the urge to nudge him and figure out what was going on. She's not quite sure if he's just laying it on thick or if he is actually attracted to her but either way she feels a little unsettled. She fights the urge to be annoyed and tries to focus on the conversation, feeling oddly out of place as Elaine takes them on a tour of the campus.

She's not _annoyed_. It's just disturbing the way that he's fawning all over their kids' potential new principal. He feigns interest in the science lab, despite the fact that she _knows_ he isn't going to care about that and chats up _Elaine_ until they reach the doors of the gym.

"So this is really embarrassing and I'm sure you get it all the time, but I'm a huge fan."

"That's not embarrassing." Charlie nudges her playfully. He gestures to the open court, "Would you like to see one of my dunks first hand? Even Bela admits they're better in person."

"Really?" Elaine's smile was wide and bright. "That would be incredible."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Santana interjected, unsure why she was so annoyed but speaking up anyway. "You haven't even stretched."

Charlie looks at her pointedly. It's a look she's intimately familiar with but had never seen directed at herself. It's the look he used to give their kids when they were cock-blocking him. "It's just one dunk, and those nets are slightly lower than regulation I should be fine and don't worry I won't be shattering any rims." He flashes Elaine a smile. He jogs slowly to half court where there is a rack of basketballs. He wasn't going to do anything too fancy, he would need to adjust for height, but one of the dunks that he did often was his one-handed windmill, he only did it however when he had open court like this. He stretches his back quickly before taking off dribbling the ball down the court.

He can feel his muscles protest but he ignores them, they always did this when he hadn't exercised in a month and he immediately feels it in his groin as he goes up for the dunk. He manages to keep it together and nail the dunk, and even walk back without much incident. He had tweaked something but he wasn't going to let Santana give him that knowing smirk. He smiled at Elaine who clapped impressed. He could totally seal the deal and manage to get a date from her, she seemed smart and intelligent. "So, I can totally get you and your—boyfriend tickets to our opening game if you want."

At this Santana couldn't help but roll her eyes, he was definitely fishing for information in front of her and _badly_ , if he wanted to make a fool of himself then she wasn't going to watch and mock him in her head.

"Oh, I don't have a boyfriend or husband," Elaine seems to wince at the sound of that. "But I do have a friend who would die to get a ticket." She stops for a moment and glances at Santana, who either hasn't noticed or simply doesn't care. They have been divorced for close to three years now.

"I'll have them delivered to you when they become available, floor side seats," Charlie offered. "For you and your friend." Usually he just gave the free tickets and handed them over to Bela and Max to give out to their friends, but she seemed nice and he didn't want to date anyone who was famous, he didn't need people in his business. Maybe this was a new start. Plus, Santana hadn't jabbed him or elbowed him, and she didn't _look_ upset. Not that it mattered, she didn't want to be with him. It was something that she had made clear every time he had tried for something more, and he had stopped asking. It was humiliating in a way, he didn't mind being her booty call every now and again, but Santana had made it clear that was all he was. So maybe he needed to get out there again.

"That sounds amazing," Elaine smiled graciously, normally she wouldn't accept such a gift especially not in front of his ex-wife, but Santana truly didn't seem to care. "Now, would you _like_ to see the soccer field or—?"

"I think we've seen enough," Santana cuts her off, smiling she was sure she looked slightly crazy but Charlie didn't seem to notice. Of course he wouldn't he was probably busting out of his pants to get into hers. "I think we have some things to discuss and forms to fill, I think this might be the perfect fit for Max and Bela."

"That's excellent to hear, but it seems to catch many parents off guard that we _do_ ask for them to donate some time to help their classes with some activities. The more the better. I do understand that your schedule requires you to be all over the place, both of your schedules however we don't allow exceptions—"

"I'm sure we can make up the hours," Charlie says smoothly.

Santana stares at him raising a brow, Charlie had never even been to a parent teacher meeting, that didn't involve her kids attempting to call him to bail them out because he was still and always would be the 'fun' parent. Sure he got to parent the kids during his off season but she was annoyed at him. "I'm sure we can." Santana agrees. "Do you have any pamphlets I'd like to show the kids, so we can have a family discussion about this stuff."

"Of course, let's head back to my office so we can formally get you an application, and I can go over the fee structure with you." Elaine says as she whisks them back towards her office. "You know Mr. Fabray, I do understand that you're travelling, but I do have an event that would be wonderful, and it helps raise more money for our arts programs."

Santana rolled her eyes behind Elaine's back, she already had Charlie salivating at a chance to get into her pants. She didn't need to keep sucking up to him, though Charlie would probably _love_ that. Santana shakes her head before reminding herself that he was free to do whatever he wanted.


	48. Chapter 48

"Why aren't there any shows about _basketball_?" Max asked Bela, groaning as CJ 'sang' along with whatever weird Muppet show that they were watching. "I mean there are cartoons about soccer, but I want to watch a cartoon about basketball, I mean there's even a show about _hockey_."

Bela rolled her eyes, "Go watch Space Jam again, I'm sure CJ would like it. It has bright colors and it has cartoons."

Max shuddered, they had spent weeks watching Space Jam and various other movies. CJ would insist on watching the moving again while they were sick. "I don't want to watch Space Jam. I want to watch something else."

"Well, we can't go to Netflix now. You _know_ how CJ gets, and I don't want to deal with one of his tantrums. Where is dad anyway, isn't he supposed to be pretending to watch us?" Bela asks, it was far too hot and she was far too lazy to get up and go search for her dad who was probably in his room sleeping.

"Dunno," Max shrugged. "He's probably working out; you know he has to get in shape. He always gets fat in the summer."

"I do not get _fat_." Charlie grumbles staring at his son annoyed at the comment. He already shed the fifteen pounds that he had gained since the end of the season. It had been mostly parties and lounging about all summer. He simply grew a bit of a belly, and maybe he had lounged around a bit after his bout of chickenpox, but one call from Sue and a surprise visit from Beiste and he had lost most of his beer belly in about a week.

Both Max and Bela turned to look at their dad staring at him for a moment. It was Bela who finally broke the silence. "What's with the suit?"

Charlie fiddled with the sports jacket. He didn't know how he was going to have this conversation with the kids, it was _just_ a first date. "I was checking to see if it still fit," he lies lamely. "It still looks good right?"

Bela raised a brow and looked at Max who grinned at his dad, "You look _awesome_ dad."

Charlie stared at his son trying not to smile, "You said I was fat, and we both know that your mom won't let you out of the house when you dress yourself, so unfortunately your opinion is invalid. Bela?"

Bela cast a critical eye at her dad, he was one to talk, she knew her mom still picked out his clothes sometimes, when they were going to be seen together. He had only won the best dressed award in the NBA because her mom had a hand in picking out his clothes. "Are you and mom going on a date? Because this is _mom's_ job."

"No Bela I'm not going on a date with your mother, and I can't ask your mom, just tell me if I look okay," he grumbled, he felt ridiculous. He was asking his children for fashion advice. It was a new low, a terrible low, but he hadn't really dated anyone other than Santana and that had been easy. They had been friends first, he didn't know _anything_ about his kid's principal. It might as well be a _blind_ date. But he needed someone low key, who didn't draw too much attention. He didn't want this splashed on the front of the enquirer.

"So—you're going on a date, with someone who _isn't_ mom." Bela fills in the blank, pausing for a moment as she takes that in. Almost immediately crossing her arms over her chest. Her parents were doing stuff together, nearly every week, they were still attempting to hide it, but they were terrible at it. But this was new, as far as she knew her mom wasn't looking at other men and her dad was the one who had a nasty habit of cheating on her mother. "Does mom know?"

Max turned his attention to Bela for a moment, when he heard the edge in her voice and even CJ glanced at her for a moment. "Yeah. Does mom know?"

Charlie sighed, now he was going to be grilled by his kids. He should have just sucked it up and called Brittany. He's about to respond when CJ makes a bee-line for him with his sticky hands. "CJ— _stay_." He commands holding his hand up. He's not surprised when CJ grabs onto his pant leg, staining his recently dry cleaned suit.

"Daddy, _up_!"

Charlie's eye twitched, he couldn't go on a date with chocolate smeared all over his pant leg, it unfortunately looked like shit. He sighs and picks CJ up, his annoyance dissipating when CJ curls into him, gripping at his collar. And there when his white shirt, he'd probably have to get the whole thing dry cleaned again. "I can't have anything nice around you can I?" he grumbles blowing a raspberry on CJ's chubby cheeks and causing him to giggle and hold him tighter. He glances up at Bela and Max who were still watching him and possibly judging him. "No. Your mother doesn't know that I have a date. No, I'm not cheating on your mom. She wants me to go on dates and stuff, I just haven't told her because it just sort of _happened_ recently."

Bela shares a look with Max and bites the inside of her cheek. She doesn't like this, but her dad seemed weirdly excited. "It's hot, you don't need to wear the blazer. You also don't need a tie, you do need to comb your hair, or get it cut. I mean and don't button your shirt up all the way you look like a nerd, this isn't _prom_ dad."

Max decides to pick up on that line of thought and frowns, "Why do you have to date someone else? Don't you love mom? Is she prettier than mom?"

Charlie sighed and moved to take a seat by his kids, "I do love your mother, more than anything Max. I also think she's the prettiest woman in the world—"

"But you got naked with other people who _weren't_ mom," Max interrupted getting annoyed.

"I did. What I did was a _stupid_ and a bad thing, and I hurt your mother a lot. I did that, and just saying sorry to your mom wasn't going to make it better. I had an opportunity to maybe work things out with your mom years ago and I blew it. Like—it's game 7, we're tied and the clock is at 3 seconds and I miss the game winning three-pointer. I missed that shot with your mom and I don't think she's forgiven me for not being the man that she thought I was, that she married."

Max frowns. "But—" He tries to think of the right words. His dad _never_ missed the winning shot. That's why he was the best.

Charlie tries to force a reassuring smile. "But just because your mom doesn't love me anymore doesn't mean that either of us love you kids any less. So maybe you and Bela can help me think of what I can do so that I'm not a total loser."

Bela rolls her eyes, but the thought makes Max's stomach twist uncomfortably if the look on his face is anything to judge it by. "I think we're going to go watch Space Jam with CJ." She smirks. "So you're on your own." With that Bela reaches over to take CJ from her dad and place him on the couch beside her. If they had to choose sides, then they'd definitely be on her mom's side.

Charlie made a face, so it was time to call Brittany then. His kids had abandoned him, but he couldn't be angry at them. They would probably _never_ be fully comfortable with either of them dating. If he could go back and take it all back—he would. But he wasn't happy with his current situation and Santana didn't want him back. She had made it very clear that he was a good booty call and that was it.

It was time for him to start moving on.

~O~

Santana smiled as she finished putting the finishing touches on a healthy meal for her children, it wasn't as if Charlie was a _terrible_ influence on their eating habits, even though he was, but she liked making dinner for her kids. It was the only time she could control what they were eating. She heads into the living room and frowns when she only sees two of her children. Bela who is stuck on her phone and CJ attempting to smash a square block into a circle hole. She hoped he would get it soon, because he was turning three soon. "Where's your brother?" she asks turning to Bela who shrugs.

"Ax?" CJ asks looking up. When his mom nods he grins brightly. "I dunno."

"You dunno?" Santana kneels down and opens her arms for him. "Let's go find him okay? Then we can wash our hands and eat dinner. Are you hungry?"

"HUNGRY!" CJ shouts pleased with himself, running to his mom. "Are we—are we eating pizza?" CJ asks.

Santana shakes her head, of course he wanted pizza. "No but it's a _surprise_ , "she says in a false cheery tone as she scoops him up. She flicks her eyes to Bela, she needed an activity because sitting on her ass all day on her phone probably wasn't healthy. "You have five more minutes and then I want your phone put away until it's time for bed."

Bela rolls her eyes but offers Santana a thumbs up, which she counts as a win. She checks the backyard and frowns when Max isn't anywhere near the basketball key. His summer league is only next week and she had been almost sure that he would want to perfect all of his new moves before it started. "Where's Ax?" CJ lifts his hands exasperatedly.

"Let's keep looking." She encourages, tickling his belly playfully. If he wasn't outside playing basketball, with his crazy focus, then he was probably in his room. She was lucky that he didn't generally want a lot of toys. So maybe he was just taking a nap. She heads up the stairs before heading to Max's room. She shifts and puts CJ down on the ground, "You have to knock on the door before you enter CJ," she reminds him when he tries to push the door open. She watches as he bangs his little fists against the door.

" _AX_! Hungry. I Hungry!"

Santana waited for a moment waiting to hear the footsteps but she doesn't. She frowns and opens the door reaching down to take CJ's hand. There sitting on the bed looking rather dejected was her son, all his basketball gear was on a pile on the floor in the middle of the room. His dad's signed jersey was on top of the pile. She paused and stared at it. Max had always been anal about his dad's jersey's he wanted to get them framed. So to see the latest one, his dad's game winning jersey on the ground like that—

"I'm not hungry." Max huffs, not looking up from his iPad.

"Max, you're eight. You don't get to act like a teenager. You're not a teenager, and I have four more years before you get to start being a brat like Bela." Santana interjects. She wasn't going to let this be a thing, if she could nip it in the bud before it started she most certainly would. "You leave in a few days for camp—"

"Do I _have_ to go?" He whines and it's enough to make Santana stop where she stands.

"Yes. I paid for you to go to camp so you're going to camp." She insists. It had been expensive, far too expensive and she had needed to talk to Charlie about it, asking for him for a bit of help to cover the cost was irritating. But this was some fancy camp with some of the fanciest trainers, the best food and the best basketball players from around the country. It was far too much for an _eight_ -year-old. But Max had begged for it for weeks, and she had caved. Though fourteen grand for a _week_ seemed excessive. "Is this because you're nervous that you're going to be away from home for the first time?"

"No." Max shifts on his bed and she's sure that she's nailed at least part of it. But something else was going on and she was going to have to get to the bottom of it. "I just don't like basketball anymore."

Santana let's CJ down to wander and sits down on the foot of Max's bed. "So what is it? You finally realized that you don't like being hot and sweaty? Or did you discover that it's not actually hard to throw a ball into a hoop?"

Max scowled, "It's super hard, and you have to practice a lot to be really good at it!" He says defensively.

Santana watches as CJ crawls onto the pile of gear and begins to toss around one of the basketballs, running after it. "So your father says, but he seemed to pick it up rather quickly," Santana points out and leans back a bit, noting how Max looked away from her. "What did your dad do to make you upset?"

Max frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "He's supposed to be winning you back. It's like game seven in the championship and he misses the shot to win the game. He's supposed to be a _winner_ , he's supposed to be the best and win. He's supposed to be fighting to win you back."

"I'm not a trophy, Max."

"But he's not even _trying_. He trained forever for his championships and he's going out on dates with some—some _bitch_! She's not even prettier than you."

"You don't know that—" Santana tried, trying to ignore the weird flop of her stomach at the idea.

"He said it. Dad said it himself that she wasn't prettier than you."

"There's more to life than just being pretty." Santana sighed. "And in any case, I don't ever want to hear you call a woman a bitch." _Unless she is one_ , Santana adds mentally. But Max is eight and she can explain later the complexities of when a girl really is a bitch and when she's not. "If it makes you feel better, dating is not one of your dad's strong points."

"You're not mad that he's dating a _putz_?"

"No, I want your father to be happy. It's something I've always wanted for him. I didn't make him happy anymore and that's why he felt like he had to have other girls." She explains. It's hard and confusing and she's not sure she understands everything that happened herself, but she also knows that on some level she had a smidgen of culpability as well.

Max scowled, he had expected his mom to be super angry at his dad. "He's still a jerk."

"Yes. Your father is. He's a jerk who loves you more than anything, and you love him. I know you're mad at him, but your dad cheating on me—it happened years ago. I know you want to be a family again, I know that both you and Bela miss having him around and us together—"

"He doesn't show up for Christmas or Thanksgiving—that's supposed to be _family_ time. I don't want him having another family."

"Your dad's not going to have another family. He wouldn't do that to you kids," at least she hoped that Charlie had the good sense to not get another woman pregnant. She'd need to have a discussion with him about getting a vasectomy. He'd probably refuse. "As for the Thanksgiving and Christmas, you know how the schedule is but I'll make sure that we have a family Christmas together. I think I need to be the one to invite him, because he won't show up otherwise."

Max pouts and nods and watches as CJ tosses the ball up and it goes through the net that he has in his room. CJ fell back on his butt and laughed before running to go get the ball. "I don't like it," he finally says.

"Well, that's a conversation that you need to have with your father. I'll talk to him of course, but I don't think you need to worry about his dating life. He's _super_ bad when it comes to dating in general." Santana turns to look at the pile of stuff on the ground. They could deal with it later. "Let's go get some dinner and then if you want we can donate your stuff to charity."

Max eyes the pile of gear warily. Basketball made him feel sad and he couldn't really explain why it made him feel angry. But he also didn't want it gone _forever_. "Maybe we can just keep it in the basement?" He asks slowly.

Santana studied him carefully before getting up and picking up CJ. Max was disappointed in Charlie; it was something that her ex-husband would need to deal with. It was something that she would discuss with Charlie later. "Okay, we'll box it up if that's what you want." Santana said after a moment. Max had nothing to worry about when it came to his dad this date would probably be a disaster of sorts and Charlie would probably give up on the whole endeavor eventually.


	49. Chapter 49

Santana sighed as she made her way to Charlie's apartment door, knocking on it. With Max at camp, despite his protests, and Bela helping her Aunt Brittany for a bit of cash, she had a few free hours of peace with Tina taking care of CJ for a while. Which meant that she would finally be able to have that long talk with Charlie about Max. She had hoped that this was just a phase, but Max seemed to be disappointed in his father's actions. She didn't know how to handle the situation because the last thing she needed was for all that love and hero worship that Max had for his father to turn into the amount of hate and contempt that Quinn felt for her own father. But before that, it had been nearly a month and a half since her last orgasm.

Her children would always be a priority for her, but they had fallen into a pattern. Sex first, then talk about the children after the fact. They talked about scheduling to their schoolwork, to maybe starting CJ in pre-school in the fall. She never let the talks fall into anything more than that. They didn't talk about their lives. She had no intention of giving him a chance to try and beg for another chance. She was done with that. Even though it was nice to have her co-parent back.

The door swings open after a moment and she raises a brow, staring at Charlie's new favorite pair of boxer briefs, and smirks. She would never admit it but she liked the dorky piece of clothing, with its power symbol on his crotch that glowed in dark, and right above it was the words ' _Power On.'_ It was so _classically_ Charlie. "So, I just push to start huh?" Santana says in a seductive tone reaching towards his dick.

Charlie immediately reaches forward and stops Santana from touching him. He frowns slightly, as Santana looks up at him, there was confusion on her face. "I _can't_."

"What do you mean you _can't_?"

"I mean," Charlie gulps. His body has always responded to Santana. But he was dating someone now and he wasn't going to make the same mistakes with Elaine that he had made with his ex-wife. "I—uh—think I have a girlfriend."

"Since when has that stopped us before?" Santana scoffs. When Charlie doesn't smile or even chuckle, she frowns. They had slept together several times when she was still with Sebastian and Charlie didn't even bat an eye. What the hell was his problem now? "Come on, I just need to blow off a little steam—"

"That's not what this is for me. You _know_ that. And I can't keep just being a booty call when you're feeling lonely." He sighs. It's almost physically painful for him to say no to Santana but it's the right thing to do. "I've made enough mistakes in my life to know that this is one I don't want to repeat."

"I wish you had learned that when we were together." Santana snaps. It's a low blow but she's hurt and confused and feels oddly betrayed. Who the hell was he to start spouting off about morality.

Charlie takes a step back. "I _did_ learn that when we were together, which is why I stopped. I hadn't cheated on you or been with another woman in five years. The only woman I've slept with in eight years is _you._ _Yeah_ I was an idiot and an asshole and whatever else, but I _won't_ be a cheater. Not again."

"Right, until you get _bored_ , or some pretty blonde cheerleader smiles at you." Santana snaps at him. "Are you kidding me? So what's the plan start a new family—when you have a son who is furious with you."

"What are you talking about? I have a family Santana, and yeah I screwed up. I fucked up we've been over this, and I'm here trying. I want to be with you—"

"Yeah. Except for right now."

"I want to be with you." He restates. "But I want to be with you _completely_. I want all of you, I want to get married again and have things be _better_ than they were before. I want to be completely honest with you and have your trust. I cheated. I screwed up. I _get it_. Which is why I know that you probably can't ever forgive me. But this limbo where I'm just your very talented booty call? I can't do that anymore. Not when there's a girl who actually likes me that I think I could be pretty happy with."

"Pretty happy?" Santana scoffs. "Even at our worst I think we were more than pretty happy."

"Yeah, but not every woman is you." He shakes his head. "I'm not even going to pretend that someone could be. But if I ever got another chance, I don't want it to be half-assed or half-cocked. We've both made mistakes before and I'm trying to be a better man. But I'm not just going to hang around and hope one day you change your mind."

Santana swallows, not quite sure what to say to this. "Fine," Santana says after a moment. "Do what you want."

"Santana—"

"I don't care. You're right we're divorced, and I don't think I'll ever trust you again. It's really that simple. Now since you're planning your new family—"

"That's not what I'm doing."

"You have a son who is disappointed with you. He basically packed away all of the shit and he doesn't want to play basketball anymore. It was a pain to make him go camp, because he's finally realizing what a _fuck-up_ his dad is."

Charlie's eyes narrowed. He didn't have time to worry about what the fuck she was talking about. He was a dick and an asshole, but he tried to be a good father. "Get the fuck out of my house."

"Gladly." Santana offers him a sarcastic smile and storms out of his apartment, slamming the door behind her for good measure. Her eyes burned but she would be _damned_ if she shed one more tear for Charlie Fabray.

Fuck him.

~O~

Quinn stared at her three-month old daughter, wondering how anybody managed to get through this. Beth just wouldn't stop crying. Sure she was fine with Rachel, but with her it was a nightmare. She couldn't remember the last time that she had slept through the night. She couldn't remember that she had touched her wife, and even if she did, she was turned off by the smell of diapers and baby powder and Vaseline. She didn't even remember the last time she had a clean shirt.

Beth was clearly the spawn of Satan and she was _envious_ of Rachel right now. Who was currently at the gym trying to shed the rest of her baby weight. It was one of the few times that Rachel had for herself, but that generally meant that she was alone with Beth. "Alright Beth, I changed your diaper, you weren't hungry, I tried to burp you—come on!" She whined to her daughter who only cried harder. She frowns and is about to pick her up again so she could rock her when there is a firm knock on her apartment door. She groans, hoping that it's not her irritating neighbor. She knew that Beth was loud but they were trying their best. She pulls the door open with one hand, " _What_ —Charlie?"

Charlie stared at his twin noting the bags under her eyes and flicked his eyes down to his niece. He stares at them for another second before extending his hand out for his niece. "Let me see her." He waits patiently and moves closer to his sister so he can take Beth away from his sister and immediately begins to rock her gently. He hums and finally Beth hiccups and the crying starts to die down, as she stares at him.

Quinn's too tired to do anything other than gape at him. "How the hel—help are you doing that?"

Charlie smirks but continues to bounce Beth lightly in his arms and hold her close to his chest. He remembers when Bela was born he had been terrified to curse in front of her. But three kids later and there were certain things that he had realized he just didn't have time to care about anymore. It only takes a few minutes before Beth's soft hiccups quiet and she settles into what Charlie hopes will be a long restful sleep.

"I take back every bad thing I've ever thought about you."

"You look terrible." Charlie notes.

Quinn waves away the remark. She hasn't slept in _years_ so it's not as if she's surprised. "I want to know what you did to my kid and is it permanent?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"I'll _give_ her to you. I'll pay you to take her."

"That bad, huh?" Now that he's sure that Beth isn't going to wake right back up at the littlest movement, Charlie settles Beth back into the bassinet in the corner and turns back to his twin, motioning for her to sit on the couch. "If you needed help why didn't you call me? Or mom—don't call Brittany."

Quinn frowns and glances at her daughter biting her lip, "I thought I could handle it. I mean you're an idiot and I saw you do it. Clearly I was wrong and I'm not cut out for this."

"You're fine, it's okay to have a bit of help. Get Rachel's parents to watch her maybe a few hours a week so you guys can get some sleep. We got a nanny, she didn't last long, just until we managed to get everything under control."

Quinn studies Beth for a moment before turning to her brother. "How much for you to stay and watch her?"

Charlie rolled his eyes. "I can watch her for the rest of the night to give you and Rachel some time to sleep and recharge. But I can't stay, I have my own crises with my children."

"Look, I'll call Santana and beg for you to stay for a few days and then I'll explain to your kids that you're being a hero or something. Just—you know, stay for the week."

Charlie made a face, "It's not that simple Quinn. Santana's mad at me. My son hates me; I think Bela is indifferent at this point. CJ is well he's a toddler. Oh and I have a girlfriend."

Quinn stops speaking and turns to her brother for a moment, " _What_?"

"My ex-wife and my son hate me." Charlie repeats.

"No. The girlfriend part. You haven't been photographed with _anyone_."

"Because she's someone _normal_. And boring, emphasis on the boring part, especially in bed."

"You _slept with her_?"

"Shush Quinn, you'll wake Beth," Charlie corrects her immediately. "Last night, it was the first time. I was safe, don't worry. I just—" Elaine had certainly enjoyed it but it had felt like a chore. So he had made his excuse and hopped on a plane to come and see Quinn. He didn't want to deal with his mom's pity or Brittany's weirdness, he just needed someone who would just tell him to it as it was.

"That's not what I'm worried about, you idiot. No wonder everyone is pissed at you." She shakes her head.

Charlie scowls. "How is it that no matter what, I'm always the bad guy? Am I not allowed to move on? It's been over _two years_."

Quinn held up her hands defensively. "I didn't mean it like that, and _you_ be quiet or you'll wake my screaming demon child. Believe me, I don't want to piss you off when you've gone all 'baby whisperer' on me."

Charlie felt his irritation wane. It was nice to be recognized for something other than being good at basketball. He was a good dad. Even if everyone in his life was pissed at him. "Probably a smart move if you ever want to sleep again."

Quinn sighs dreamily. "I can't even imagine."

Charlie watches her for a minute and sighs. "Alright tell me. How _did_ you mean it?"

"Mean what?" Quinn asks blearily.

"You literally just said 'no wonder everyone is pissed at you'. So out with it. What did I do?"

"You moved on." Quinn shrugs, "It might just be that I've only gotten maybe an hour of sleep in three days but it seems as though everyone kind of thought you'd be a family again. It's not wrong for you to get to move on, but you moving on just means that there's no hope." She smirks as something else comes to mind and can't stop but chuckle. "Only _you_ would move on with someone too boring in bed."

Charlie sighs, it wasn't about the sex. He was sure that the sex had been fine, it's just that he didn't _feel_ anything while doing it with her. Perhaps it had been far too soon for him to be jumping into bed with anyone.

"I haven't moved on; I'm just starting to date again. I mean what else am I supposed to do? Be alone for the rest of my life, being Santana's booty call whenever she needs it? I thought that maybe if I did that we could sort of you know—fall back into place but Santana made it clear several times that I was just there to get her off. That she'd never trust me again. I don't know what Max thinks to be honest, maybe he thought I was somehow going to magically fix things. But I can't if Santana won't give me another chance."

Quinn nods far too tired to actually give Charlie any advice. "Did you try to woo her with something other than your dick? I mean actual romance, not what got you into this mess in the first place? By that I mean thinking with your dick."

"How? Every time I asked her for dinner, just the two of us she said no. Short of tricking her into spending time with me for a weekend by dumping my kids somewhere—which I can't imagine will end well. I don't know what to do except to use my penis to do the talking for me."

"Gross."

"You brought it up."

Quinn shrugs closing her eyes for a minute, "She's still in love with you. That hasn't changed and you know it too. She probably thinks giving you another chance is a mistake and sends a terrible message to your daughter and maybe she doesn't want to be humiliated again. And maybe she need to know that you will never look at another woman again. I dunno, you two need some couples counselling and I'm not licensed."

Charlie frowned slightly and looked over at his twin before deciding to simply let her rest. He'd make some food for the two of them and maybe give them a few tips to help with Beth. She was a few months old, they hadn't even reached the worst part and that was teething. But it was best not to scare Quinn.


	50. Chapter 50

**AN: The very first chapter of this story was written in an attempt to show you how their life was, how good and strong their marriage was at the time. Charlie cheated on Santana, as he's pointed out years ago, and then they had four amazing years together, where he already rededicated himself to his family. He moved on past the cheating years ago. He should have told Santana back then, but didn't because he didn't want this to happen to begin with. Santana also believes the cheating stopped when he said it did and there are a few more bombshells to be had when it comes to Charlie and Santana. The wound for Santana is fresh while for Charlie he's in a different place mentally.  
**

 **As for Charlie doing jackshit to gain Santana's trust back, there's absolutely nothing you can do to force someone to trust you again. But Charlie has been there for the most part, he's been there for Santana with the exception of CJ's birth, not that he didn't try, but Santana cut him out because she wasn't ready to deal with him on top of everything. The only reason he's back in Ohio, is because Santana took his kids (illegally, Charlie could have and should have made an issue of it, but he didn't. Charlie had several shots to hit back at Santana and didn't. Something Santana is aware of, her mother is a lawyer) and moved them to Ohio. So the moment he was able to he follows her to a place he doesn't want to be to try and win her back. Sure they fought and bicker like children. Charlie has been there for the most part, whenever Santana needed to yell at him, when she broke up with Sebastian. He's not perfect and he's a bit of a jackass in this fic, but the idea that Charlie has done absolutely nothing isn't exactly true.**

* * *

CJ pushed the door open to his mother's bedroom and fell to his knees crawling towards her bed. He grabbed the sheets to help pull him to his feet as he came face to face with his mother and grinned raising his hand to smack her awake.

"CJ, if you smack me you will go for time out," Santana informs her son who stops immediately, and falls back down on his butt. She immediately offers her arm and pulls him onto the bed with her, letting him crawl onto the main part of the bed and curl up against her. Santana pulls him closer to her and nuzzles him, immediately regretting that decision. "CJ! You stink!"

"No I don't!" CJ giggles. "Where's Daddy?"

Santana frowns. Have they been that obvious that even their toddler is confused? He's caught them far more often than any of the other kids, but surely it wasn't _that_ often. CJ flops against her and she winces a bit as her eyes water. He needed a change. "Daddy is at his house," she says after a moment scooping him up. His skin was sensitive and the last thing she needed was him getting another rash, she didn't need another boy who liked to run around the house without pants on. "Come on let's get you dressed, and we'll call your daddy on the phone." Santana promised hoping to god that if Charlie was with the other woman that he wouldn't _flaunt it_ in front of her or the kids.

CJ is thankfully moderately cooperative to getting a bath (because he _does_ stink) and getting dressed. No more than twenty minutes later, she and CJ sit down on his bed while she pulls out her phone to call Charlie. He answers on the third ring and her stomach does a weird flop at the thought that she'd never had to wait that long before.

"Hi Daddy!" CJ speaks up before Santana can even explain. "I'm hungry. Can you make me food?"

Charlie laughs and Santana can't fight her own smirk at her son's antics. Sometimes he's so much like Charlie, it's uncanny.

"I dunno, have you been a good boy for your mommy?"

CJ nods, "I want—I want pancakes!"

"Bacon pancakes?" Charlie asks.

CJ's eyes widen. "Bacon pancakes?" He looks at his mom. "What are bacon pancakes? Can I has bacon pancakes?"

Santana groaned at the name of the monstrosity that she was sure she had banned from ever being made in her house. "A very special treat that you only get once a year. But only if your daddy doesn't—"

"There's a song you know CJ, let me sing it for you." Charlie clears his throat.

"Charlie for the love of—" Santana tries to stop the song that she knows her son will be singing for the rest of the day.

'Bacon Pancakes

Making Bacon Pancakes

Take some bacon and I'll put it in a pancake

Bacon Pancakes That's what it's gonna make

Bacon Pancakes'

Santana sighs as CJ begins to clap along. This was why she hated him sometimes, he was such a child. "CJ, I'll make you breakfast, I have a bunch of yummy fruit for you."

CJ turns to his mom before looking at his dad. "I hungry daddy, I wanna a Bacon Pancake!"

"I know you do, but it'll take me some time to get there, I'm just getting in from the airport. I saw your cousin Beth, she's a very pretty baby you know—"

CJ frowns at this not quite understanding and pushes the tablet back to his mom. "I wanna go play with Ax, and Bela!" he says scrambling off his bed and heading to their rooms. "Ax! Bela! Daddy's gonna make bacon pancakes!" CJ shouts.

Santana rolls her eyes when she hears a delighted squeal from Bela and she was sure all three of her kids were celebrating the stupid Bacon Pancakes. "You spoil them."

"They're my kids." Charlie shrugs. "I didn't mean to invite myself over if you had plans—"

"I don't." She assures a little too quickly for her own liking. She hasn't talked to him in days and it might sound weird but she _missed_ him. She also felt a little bad about how they had left things. "So you were in New York?"

"Yeah, I needed to think about some things." Charlie huffs.

"Look, I was out of line before. I'm sorry."

"For trying to sleep with me? Or for calling me a fuck-up?"

"Is it terrible for me to say both?" She winces. "Look, the kids would be thrilled to see you for breakfast and you're not going to make me cook that monstrosity for your demon spawn, so I'm just sorry."

He sighs. "Alright, do you at least have the ingredients?"

"You think I can get away with having your children and not having a steady supply of bacon in the house?" Santana teases. "And yeah, we've got pancake mix, I think. At the very least we have stuff to make pancakes with."

"Good. At least I know you're taking care of them." He teases. They definitely don't need to rehash their relationship failings again and again.

Santana nods, "I shouldn't have said what I said, but I wasn't wrong Charlie. Max is disappointed in you—something about a game winning point—I dunno. You need to talk to him."

"Okay, I'll take him out after breakfast. How was his camp?"

Santana winces, an unmitigated disaster was putting it mildly. "Another thing you need to talk to him about."

"That bad huh?" Charlie sighs he had thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Max was eight and short for his age group. He had been short until he had sprouted up, but there was a good chance that Max was never going to be a freak of nature like him. Not with Santana only being 5'4'. "Alright, give me about half an hour to another hour to get there. I'll see you soon."

~O~

Bacon pancakes were practically a holiday in the Fabray-Lopez house and CJ and Bela seemed to be content to enjoy every minute of it. But Max merely poked at his pancakes with a fork, a sour look permanently etched onto his face.

CJ finishes his bacon pancake and frowns noting that there didn't seem to be anymore, he's about to start crying when he notices that Max still has two and he grins, and shifts so he can stand on his seat, and reaches to his brother's plate and grabs his uneaten pancake. "Bacon pancake!" CJ shouts before taking a giant bite of it.

Max scowls at his brother, "Hey that's _mine_!" He snaps reaching to grab the food back. The action causes CJ to wobble dangerously on his booster seat and Charlie's hand immediately reaches out to scoop CJ up before he could fall off his seat.

"Max," Charlie frowns shooting him a warning look. "It's just food I can make you more if you want," he offers his son, who shoots him an angry look.

"I'm not hungry," Max snaps at him, before shoving his plate away and storming off.

Santana and Charlie share a look when they hear the door to his room slam shut, before Charlie sighs and gets up making sure that CJ was firmly seated down and handing his youngest the rest of his half-eaten bacon pancakes. "I'm going to go talk to Max."

Santana nods, "Remind him he's too young to start acting like a teenager, and I won't stand for it. I don't want to have to put up with _another_ surly pre-teenager."

Charlie rolls his eyes and heads to Max's room, knocking on the door. He waits for a moment before rolling his eyes and opening the door. "Max, if you keep pushing your mom and storming off like a child, she's going to totally take your door."

"That's not _fair_." Max huffs.

Charlie frowns and moves towards his son and slides onto the ground beside him, noting that all the gear that he had given Max was gone and even the basketballs that he had gotten signed by _legends_ for his son was currently in a box in the corner. The room looked rather plain. "You're mad at me." It wasn't a question; he wasn't really going to give his son a chance to wiggle out of this.

Max frowns, not saying anything right away as he balls his hands into a fist. "Yeah. You're a _jerk_."

Charlie raised a brow. He hadn't been expecting that but he merely shrugs it off, "I never said I was a good person—"

"You're supposed to be a _role_ -model! That's what it said on TV, you're not supposed to be a _jerk_." Max insists.

"I'm supposed to be _your_ role-model because I'm your dad, and I know I haven't been a very good one lately," Charlie admits looking at Max who frowns. "I'm sorry Max. I'll do better."

"No you won't! You _missed_ the shot and you—you gave up on us." Max yells at him.

"I gave up on you?"

"You _promised_ you'd fix things with mom, you promised that we could be a family again and that you wouldn't stop trying but you're not trying anymore. You're _not_! You've got a girlfriend and—"

"Max, I screwed up and I don't know how to get your mom back. If your mom told me that I could move back in, my stuff would be on the front lawn by this evening. Not even, it'd be an hour. You think I don't miss this? Making bacon pancakes? Or waking up next to your mom? I miss your mom—I miss this family more than _anything_."

"But you're dating a _putz_."

"I know," Charlie runs a hand through his hair. "The reason I'm dating someone is because I'm lonely. I know what you're going to say—how can I be lonely when I've got you and Bela and CJ, but you're my kids. I can't just unload all my adult problems on you. You guys deserve to be kids."

Max scowls, "So tell _mom_ your problems."

"Your mom is mad at me."

"Mom is mad at you because you're dating a putz. You were mad at mom when she was dating a putz. I've never seen you so angry before."

"I wasn't mad at your mom. I was mad at the putz for trying to be your _dad_ , I'm your dad. Your mom is your mom; no one is ever going to replace her. I'm not going to let anyone replace her. I just want to be happy with someone."

"She's not _mom_."

Charlie sighs, reaching for Max's head to mess up his hair. "Okay."

"Okay?" Max asks.

"I promise that I'll keep trying to win your mom back and I won't date anyone else," Charlie promises.

Max blinked and studied his dad, " _Really_?"

"Really, I don't even think I like dating people, and I don't like comparing them to your mother, so I guess I'll just keep trying. It's how I won two championship rings after all." Charlie notes how Max's face falls. "Basketball camp didn't go well?"

"They said I wasn't very good."

"The coaches said that?"

"No, the other players. They said that you weren't very good either," Max frowned.

"Do their fathers have championship rings?" Charlie presses.

"No. But—"

"Max, there are very few kids your age who are amazing basketball players, and of those players it _doesn't_ matter at least not really if they're any good, because they haven't gone through puberty yet. Some of them will be far too short to make it in the NBA, some of them will get injured. Others will hit their ceiling sooner than later. I didn't start playing until I was six-foot, and even then until I evened out people said that I would never make it in the NBA. But guess who made it?"

"You did," Max admits.

"Because I worked hard, and I have two championships to prove it."

Max nods a small smile crosses his face. His dad was right, he moves and launches himself at his dad wrapping his arms around his neck. "I'm sorry I called you a jerk," he says after a moment.

Charlie blinks and wraps his arms around his son. "It's okay," Charlie admits glancing up and seeing Santana watching them holding a sticky CJ who seemed determined to break free so he could join in as well. He had no idea how long she'd been there, but it was inconsequential. He'd just have to keep trying to win her back.


	51. Chapter 51

Santana shifts her bag over her shoulder and glares pointedly at Charlie. "I can't believe you got us into this mess."

"Why is everything _my_ fault, I had a surgery I was on very powerful narcotics, Sue ambushed me." Charlie says defensively.

"None of this would have happened if you had _mentioned_ to me that you needed shoulder surgery. Sue wouldn't have ambushed you and more importantly the kids wouldn't be in this mess," Santana hisses at him.

"I didn't tell you because you would have insisted that I stop playing and get it done right away," Charlie whispers back annoyed. Santana should be ripping on _Sue_ not him, he hadn't done anything. "Look, Max and CJ are getting haircuts, Bela gets to feel like a princess, this is not the _worst_ thing in the world to happen to this family. It's a family photo-shoot it, it's not like we're meeting the president."

Santana rolled her eyes, "You don't even vote."

"That's because the system is rigged against the little guy, and my vote doesn't matter."

"You're currently the third highest paid athlete in the world, you are _not_ the little guy." Santana snipes at him, rubbing her temple. She wasn't going to get into this argument she _shouldn't_ get into this argument with him. It was totally off topic and she needed to make it known that she was against this idea.

"Semantics."

"Focus, our kids are going to be on a magazine cover Charlie."

"It's not like they haven't been on TV before, I mean I paid twenty-five thousand dollars because CJ interrupted my match and he was splashed all over ESPN for months, and you can still view it on YouTube." Charlie points out.

"That's because Brittany is irresponsible," Santana reminds him. "It was not a _choice_ that _we_ made, we don't want them in that world, you know how shallow it is. You know the rumors, and the _shit-heads_ on the internet that just love to bring people down. When you have a bad game, or you choked in the finals you know what people say about you and you're an adult, these are our kids. Bela uses the internet daily. I don't want her developing a complex."

"We already monitor everything she's on, that was the rules or we put her back in the dark ages again. It's going to be okay it's a family photo Santana, I know I'm worried too. There are a bunch of _weirdos_ out there. But we can't keep them locked in their rooms forever."

"That's exactly your plan for when Bela starts dating," Santana reminds him.

"All the more reason for her to get her fill of the spotlight now." Charlie counters.

Santana shook her head, "Fine, but I get final say on all the pictures and what they wear. I am not going to let my kids look like _you_ dressed them on a national stage."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You put CJ in orange pants and a purple shirt today, what do you think it means?"

"He picked out his clothes himself cause he's a big boy!"

"He's a toddler, he doesn't get a say in what he wears." Santana argues and spots Sue on her phone. "As for you, any decision that involves _my_ —"

" _Our_." Charlie corrects.

"When you carry a child for nine months then it can be _our_ children," Santana snaps at him before turning to Sue who was watching them. "Any decision that involves _my_ children will need to be cleared with me first, none of this. And no more getting him to agree to stuff when he's high. He agreed to Disney World and he hates theme parks."

Sue turns to him and Charlie nods, "Right, she's their mom she gets final say in these things," Charlie agrees.

"Fine, whatever but you need to get into hair and makeup Charlie. You still have the sit down interview to get too. How's your shoulder? Have you been doing the exercises?"

Santana turned to her ex-husband who flashes a smile, and she knows that he hasn't. " _Charlie_."

"I'm working out; my shoulder feels fine. Everything looks fine and like Sue said late for hair and makeup, so I'll see you later." Charlie grumbles pausing only for a moment to kiss Santana on the cheek before taking off to go to get changed.

Sue frowns ever so slightly, "Are you two together again?"

"No, we're not," Santana says bluntly wanting to nip that story in the bud before it got out. She had no idea what he was thinking, sure she had heard him promise Max that he'd _never_ date anyone else ever again, but he hadn't mentioned breaking up with her, and as far as she knew he was still closed for business. "He forgets sometimes. Also don't worry about his shoulder, I'll have someone from the team come down on him like a ton of bricks."

"Which means that you two are sleeping together," Sue mutters to herself. Any idiot could read between the lines. It was a potential money-maker and more importantly it could help Charlie's career after he retired, and more importantly it would finally cement his sneaker line.

"We're _not_ , last time I checked he was dating the kid's new principal on the sly, but what he does is _his_ business." Santana points out frowning when Sue continues to stare at her.

~O~

"What about this one—"

"That one looks like CJ is about to poop his pants, and he _did_ ," Santana interrupts looking through the photos. "That one is simply a _terrible_ picture of Charlie, he looks cross-eyed." Santana says pointing to it.

Charlie sat quietly holding CJ who had fallen asleep and was currently drooling all over his shirt. "Really Santana?"

"The only person who the camera seemed to love was Bela," Santana gripes looking at her daughter who smiles smugly at her dad.

"I think I look good in that picture," Max said pointing to the photo.

Santana chewed on the inside of her cheek and pet Max's head gently, "Of course you do, sweetheart, but the lighting makes your dad look like he's _evil_."

Max snickers when he sees the look on his dad's face in the picture. "You're _right._ Dad, what were you doing? You're barely looking at the camera."

"CJ needed a change, I got a whiff of it. How is this _my fault_ —what about the one where I'm holding the basketball above their heads?"

"You sort of look like you're being mean to them," Santana muses. Though CJ looked absolutely adorable trying to reach for the ball and there was a kindness in Charlie's eyes as he looked at his children even Bela who looked unamused by the whole thing, it was quickly followed by the kid's dog-piling on him. "But, you're sort of a dick so it's okay. We'll put this in the keep pile."

"How many more pictures do we have to go through?" Charlie grumbles, cracking his neck. He's tired and today has been a long day.

"We're only about half-way through." Bela rolls her eyes at her Dad's impatience. They would already be through this if her dad had been able to look at the _camera_ more than once every ten pictures. She swears that he has the same attention span as CJ sometimes.

Charlie groans. "Can't we take a break?"

"Sue said we need to have our decision tomorrow." Santana's eyes narrow. "Why? Do you need to call your girlfriend and explain that you'll be home late?"

" _Girlfriend_?" Max looks up at Charlie, his eyes wide in betrayal.

"First of all, I don't have a girlfriend, we just went on a couple of dates." Charlie shoots Santana a glare, "And secondly, no. We broke that off."

Santana snorts at this and goes back to looking at the photos, deciding for once to not say anything.

Bela flicks her eyes back at her parents and leans back. "Since the camera loves me, do you think that I can become a model?"

"I don't—"

Santana moves quickly stepping on Charlie's foot hard and causing him to glare at her, "No."

" _But mom—"_

"No."

 _"_ Daddy?" Bela asks turning to him, he was probably the only one who could override her mom on this.

Charlie looked between the two of them, he was sure Santana had a reason but his daughter was adorable and he had a hard time saying no. "Your mom and I will talk about it," he says finally.

Bela scowled, "Whenever you say that, mom always wins! I think I should totally be a part of this decision."

Santana turns to Charlie. "Charlie. She wants to be on magazine covers, and she wants to be a model. What is the only modelling event you go too?"

"Oh." Charlie grinned, the Victoria Secret fashion show was _the_ event.

"Yes, oh," Santana rolled her eyes. He was such a pervert.

"Well I've said a million times that you should—"

"We're talking about _our daughter_."

"Oh—yeah, sorry Bela it isn't happening." Charlie declares firmly.

Bela throws up her hands in exasperation. "This isn't _fair!_ You always do what she wants."

"Your mom made a very good point, you're twelve. And you look like your mom so that's a definite no." The last thing he wanted was other men looking at his daughter like that.

Santana rolled her eyes and kept flipping through the pictures, stopping at the photo of all of them. Sue had insisted that she pose for a few with Charlie and the kids. It had been fun.

"You look really pretty mom," Max speaks up. "We should use that one, it shows that we're a family."

He has a good point. That particular picture was taken after CJ tried to run away. Charlie had collared him around the waist and started tickling his sides. It would be a cute picture with just CJ and Charlie, but all the rest of them had turned to watch the commotion. Bela and Max were grinning broadly and even Santana was watching them in amusement. They almost looked—

"It's perfect." Bela agrees and Santana doesn't even have it in her to disagree, even as she mentally makes a note that she's going to have to give her publicist a head's up. It's going to start rumors, but for the first time in a long time, they do indeed look like a family. She flicks her eyes over at Charlie and sighs at the pleased smile on his face. She hated how he got like this at times.


	52. Chapter 52

**AN: Sheesh, to the guest reviewer who seems to be seeing misogyny, in everything little thing. I don't actually care if you feel sorry for Charlie or not, honestly I don't care. But the two chapters from Charlie talking to Quinn and Max happened within the space of twenty-four hours. Like if you're searching for everything little thing that someone does wrong and not correct. I stated simply that trust isn't something that you can force, what would make you happy? Seriously Santana to beat up on him till she felt better? I just find it slightly amusing that you're ignoring that Santana cheated too, in fact no one really commented on it not that I thought anyone would. Shit happens, the world is messy, not everything is black and white so take a breath and continue to read and review.**

* * *

Santana shook her head as she looked at her phone and made her way towards Charlie's apartment. She was trying not to worry about the text from Bela, which, judging by the capital letters and various emoji's, suggested that Charlie had lost his mind. It was enough to get her up and make her drive all the way to Charlie's apartment to check on her babies, and _maybe_ apologize for being petty a few days ago.

If there was one thing she _didn't_ want to do, it was ruin Max's relationship with this father. It was finally getting to a place where Max was back to his old self. It was probably for the best that they _hadn't_ donated all of the things that Charlie had given him. Whether or not she _trusted_ Charlie to keep it in his pants was a separate issue and she wasn't going to pass her distrust onto her son.

She finally makes her way to his door and knocks on it once before she hears a thud and a groan. "Charlie—"

The door swings open and Bela grins at her mother while practically falling on her, "Mom! Take us home!"

Santana blinked hugging her daughter and frowning, usually Max and CJ would be right behind her but they were nowhere to be found. "Where are your—"

"Bela! Is it straight? This thing is _heavy_ , why the hell didn't I just pay them to put it up for me?" Charlie barks grunting as he attempts to balance the large picture. "Come on! _Pictures_ don't hang themselves."

Santana raises a brow and pokes her head into the apartment and quickly spots both of her sons passed out on the couch, and now that she had gotten a good look at Bela, her daughter looked absolutely exhausted. She bites her lip and turns to Charlie, her jaw dropping at the rather large photo that he was attempting to hang on his wall. "What the hell is that?"

Charlie turns and flashes his ex-wife a smile, "It came today! The picture that we took, doesn't it look amazing? I think it does. We don't have any family photos or at least I don't have any recent ones so I took it and had this done with it."

Santana stared at the family photo for a moment, it was the one that they had chosen for the cover, and it still looked like they were a family. "Has anyone told you how weird you are? Also, you're going to hurt yourself," she said after a moment.

"My body is insured for fifty million dollars, I'm okay."

"Which is less than the ninety million that is on the rest of your contract," Santana reminded him. She rolls her eyes, it's not her job to remind him to be careful anymore, and she turns to Bela. "This can't be why you called me? Your dad does silly things like this all the time."

"Hey, at least I don't play with fireworks."

"That's a flat-out lie." Santana snorts. Charlie _loves_ fireworks just as much as a regular nine-year-old boy. "Care to tell me why our kids say you're torturing them?"

Charlie blinks and turns to Santana before looking at Bela, "You made me run laps. And then run soccer drills, and now my leg hurts. Max had to do push-ups if he didn't box-out and get the rebound. CJ—well he just ran around after all of us." She reminds him.

Santana turned to look at Charlie who didn't look ashamed at all, "Well?"

"I don't know what you want me to say, CJ woke me up this morning so I strapped him in his stroller, you know the one that I can run in and we went for a 10 mile run, got back, gave CJ a bath, made breakfast, something healthy, no bacon, and then told the kids that I needed to work out today. Max thought it would be a good idea to use the practice facilities, so we did. I had Bela running drills, and Max getting rebounds while I worked out watching them of course. Then afterwards, I got them ice cream and took them to the zoo, then we came home I made something healthy for dinner and here we are." As far as he was concerned he had done his duty as their father.

"Do you _see_ what we've had to put up with?" Bela flops against the couch. It wasn't fair that all of her friends had _normal_ dads who sat around and watched TV all day.

Santana smirks, "Well, you're the one that wants to join the soccer team, which means you need to be fit enough to play, and you want to be one of the better players don't you? That requires sacrifice—CJ on the other hand is _two Charlie_. What the hell did he do all day?"

"He ran around the practice facility till one of the guys brought over one of those like small nets, then he did what Max did until he got tired and decided to crawl on me while I was doing some yoga."

"You were doing Yoga?"

"I'm getting old, so I started Yoga and Pilates, I need to keep limber and this helps," Charlie grunts and slides the photo to the ground, he'd have to make sure that CJ didn't accidentally knock it over or something. "I got my shoulder fixed, I don't want to be repairing parts of my body during my time off."

" _Please_ take us home." Bela begs.

"And undermine the fact that your father is feeding you all something other than jelly beans and bacon. Think again." She chuckles softly at her daughter's look of betrayal. "Why don't you go get cleaned up for bed, I'll help your father put CJ and Max down."

Bela groans but follows Santana's instruction with a glower that would almost be intimidating if Santana hadn't perfected the look herself.

Santana rolls her eyes and looks at Charlie for a moment but he had seemingly given up and had headed to the fridge. It figured, at least now she'd be able to talk to him, and get things back to what their definition of normal was. She picks up CJ in one swoop, grunting as her not-so-much-of-a-baby-anymore-baby flops against her like dead weight. She makes her way up to his room and settles him into bed without so much as a whimper. She shakes her head, glad that he now seems to be able to sleep like the dead before making her way back to the front room where Max is still curled up on the couch. "Come on, Max. Let's go to bed."

"I'm not tired." He mumbles, but rises to his feet anyway. She's pretty sure he doesn't even open his eyes and she leads him up to his own room where he settles back into a restful slumber. Poking her head into Bela's room quickly she smiles when she notices her daughter asleep on her bed, it hadn't taken long for that to happen and she smiles.

It paints a decent picture and it just reminds her of how good Charlie is with them, she would need to apologize to him so that they could get back to their normal behavior. The kids were the most important thing between them and as much as she wanted to be mad at him, they were his children and even when they were being terrible little shits, they still brought her so much joy. She closes the door to Bela's room and heads back to the kitchen pausing when she notices that Charlie's gone and heads to his room, knocking on the door once and opening it. "Charlie?" She blinks and stares at him from where he's got an ice-pack on his shoulder and winces for him. "You overdid it again didn't you? This is why the doctors probably told you to keep up with the exercises that they gave you."

Charlie flashes her a small smile, "I'll be fine, Max wanted to dunk on the adult nets so I picked him up and tweaked it. I'll have the team doctor stop by tomorrow so they can check it out," he said with a wave of his hand.

"Don't be ridiculous. Lay down and let me help."

He eyed her skeptically. "You want to give me a massage?"

"Want to? No. But you're in pain and we both know that fixing it _now_ is going to be better than you rolling around in pain all night long."

"This isn't some trick where you say one thing and then you'll call the kids and they'll jump on top of me, right?"

Santana snorts at that. "Are you kidding? All three of our kids are dead to the world, thanks for that by the way."

Charlie studies her for a moment, these things generally ended up with sex, but he had made up his mind that he wasn't going to try Santana back through sex, he just had no idea how to do it. He had always had her, and now that she was gone he didn't know what he had done in the beginning to get past her defenses. So instead he flashes her a small smile, "Well, if they're asleep they can't complain that they're bored." He winces as he decides to lay down on his bed, this wasn't the proper protocol but he lived in an apartment, sure it had plenty of bedrooms for the kids, but that didn't mean that he could fill it with a bunch of stuff that he didn't need.

She straddles his back and gets to work. Years of being married to him has made her a practical professional at soothing the sore muscles in his back, but as she kneads and digs at the tight spaces in his back she sighs. "I am sorry about what I said the other day. I shouldn't have said that—especially in front of Max."

Charlie tenses and Santana mentally prepares herself to be berated. It is what she deserves. They are supposed to be the adults here, and snide remarks don't help any of the kids feel like they have a stable family relationship. After a beat, he blows out a breath. "It's fine. I probably deserved it."

She cocks a brow and slowly but firmly rubs out a particularly tight knot. "It's not like you just to roll over whenever I piss you off."

"Yeah? Well after all of this, let's just say that I get that you still hate me sometimes."

"There's a difference between me being hurt and angry with you and me hating you. I—we need to do better so we don't show that anger in front of the kids. They'll think we hate each other and with our luck it'll end up on the Enquirer. "

Charlie laughed at this, and grunts when Santana hits a particularly tight spot. "It would help if you trusted me."

Santana pauses at that statement, and frowns debating on how to handle the situation. She didn't want to start a yelling match between them, things had been semi-decent between them lately. "I—"

"So tell me what I have to do to earn your trust back?" Charlie says after a moment. "I screwed up, I know I did, and I—I want to earn your trust back. You might not want to be with me again—but I need you to trust me. I want you to trust me."

Santana sighed and slid off his back, watching as he rolls over so he could look her in the eye. It hurt, he was picking at a wound that hadn't really begun to heal. He had always been sort of a dick like that, but there was an earnestness in his eyes that she had never been able to resist. "I'll always want to be with you." She admits with another sigh, "that's the problem."

He looks confused and she feels her cheeks burn whether with embarrassment or something else, she isn't sure. "Even after— _everything_?"

"I wish I could just get over you." She shakes her head, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. She shifts on the bed so she can lie next to him on the large king sized bed.

Charlie feels his own heart surge and follows Santana's lead, avoiding looking at her to hopefully get her to open up. He had never thought that he even had a _shot_ , not after everything that had happened. But lying next to Santana, staring up at the ceiling almost felt natural. "I'm never going to get over you." He blurts out, laying his cards on the table. It's a fool's hope that she could ever feel the same, but he's never been accused of being bright.

"We're quite a pair, aren't we?"

He waits for a minute, wondering if she's going to say anything else. "What can I do?"

It's a little too serious for Santana, and she laughs to diffuse the tension. "Well maybe shaving those pubes off your face would help." It's a joke and something she doesn't expect him to actually follow through with.

But Charlie isn't about to make the same mistake twice. Santana had given him an ultimatum before and he had tried to call her bluff. He stands up and makes his way to the bathroom, ignoring the indignant grunt of surprise that Santana gives him at the movement.

"What are you doing?"

"Shaving." He says like it's the most obvious thing in the world. To him, it is. He disappears into the bathroom, rummaging around for the electric razor that his mom had given him for Christmas a few years ago.

Santana's jaw drops, but she shakes her head. "Well you can wait to go see a professional. You're awful when it comes to shaving off your face-pubes."

He steps back out into the bedroom, razor in hand and points it at Santana. "No. I didn't listen to you once and I'm not going to let it happen again."

"Charlie—"

He starts the razor and despite the fact that he's not looking at a mirror, puts the buzzing blade against the base of his neck, swiping upward slowly and allowing the device to trim the thick swatch of hair.

Santana watched him he had never been any good at shaving, a skill that Russell should have taught him. She half expected him to have a bunch of nicks along his face soon enough, and the razor burn that usually came with his attempts to shave. "Sue's going to murder you." When he doesn't listen to her she gets off the bed to stop him. It was close enough to the season and he had interviews and things to do and there would be pictures. "Charlie, _stop_. Go see a professional." She bites her lip; he looks absolutely ridiculous with a huge portion of his beard shaved off. "Preferably before the children see you and Bela decides to humiliate you and put it on Instagram."

"We should ground her, she's far too young for Instagram." Charlie grumbles looking at himself. He did look funny. He makes a note to text Dave if he knew a barber who could make house calls. There was no way he could go out looking like this. "I'm serious Santana, I want to earn your trust back anything I need to do. I'll do it."

"Get someone to help you shave your beard, and maybe then we can talk."

"You promise?" He puts down the razor, checking just to be sure.

"I—" she sighs and looks at him reaching out to touch his arm. "I promise."


	53. Chapter 53

Santana grimaced when she felt small tiny hands smacking her awake, wondering what she could do to teach CJ that hitting people was wrong. He wasn't violent he just seemed to like people's reactions when he did it, especially when it woke them up from a dead sleep, and judging from his giggling he was waiting for her to yell at him. "CJ, what have I told you about hitting people," she scolded trying to stifle a yawn. She fails and reaches down to pick up CJ who immediately squirms away from her.

"Daddy? Where Daddy? I hungy." CJ informed her bluntly reaching towards his mom's hand to tug her up.

Santana blinked, she could smell the French Toast from here, which meant that Charlie was attempting to spoil her with her favorite breakfast. "What are you talking about CJ? Daddy's in the kitchen."

"Nuh-uh." CJ disagreed with a shake of his head. " _Stranger_ 's in the kitchen."

It's enough to get Santana out of bed in a hurry, there wasn't supposed to be a _stranger_ in the kitchen. CJ was two though, so it was impossible to really tell what he meant, maybe Charlie had invited someone over and had gone to the bathroom. "Let's go find out shall we?" She said picking him up. She winces he needed a diaper change but right now the most important thing was finding out who was in the kitchen. She'd make Charlie deal with CJ's dirty diaper later. She presses a finger to her lips and CJ smiles brightly but doesn't say anything as she slowly makes her way to the kitchen.

Her racing heart calms as soon as she sees that Charlie is indeed alone in the kitchen. He grins at her and she immediately notes the lack of facial hair, and the smooth look, "I made French Toast!"

"And you shaved," Santana says dryly, blinking and looking at CJ who immediately gripped her tighter, "Daddy's right there," she murmured. "He just shaved his ugly beard. See—"

"No. Where's daddy?"

Charlie sighed. "CJ, it's just me." He assures for what has to be the tenth time this morning. "It's Daddy." He shoots a frown at Santana, trying to hide the hurt that his own son didn't recognize him. "He practically bolted out of here before I could take care of his diaper."

Santana waves it away. She can take care of a dirty diaper, but CJ seemed downright scared of the 'intruder'. "You probably should have waited until he was awake, so he could see you shave it off. You might have to grow it back and then shave it off in front of him a few times so he understands."

"I can't just _grow it back_." Charlie huffs. He'd been growing that beard more or less since the day he had gotten divorced. Sure he could stop shaving for a couple weeks, but it wasn't going to be the same. He wasn't a super hairy guy to begin with and he had only needed to have it trimmed once in a while.

Santana smirks at him, trying not to find amusement in his exasperation. "It's your own fault for growing it in the first place."

Charlie scowls and is about to say something, when Max tumbles past his mother rubbing his eyes. "Are you fighting again?" he asks with a yawn, not noticing his father's new look.

"No, I'm simply pointing out that your father should have never grown that beard of his. He was just about to agree with me because shaving it has scared CJ."

Max's head whips towards his father and he stares at him, his jaw dropping. "What did you do to your face?"

"Excuse me?" Charlie questioned.

"Your beard? It's _gone_! Why?" Max demanded to know.

"Because I wanted to get rid of it." Charlie explains vaguely.

"But you looked _cool_!"

"No, he looked like someone who didn't know what a razor was, this is much better," Santana insists moving closer to her ex so that CJ could get used to him. "This was how he looked when you were a baby and growing up, I don't know why this surprises you."

"What did you do to your face?"

Everyone turns to look at Bela and Max grins. "That's what I said!"

"Everybody's a critic." Charlie grumbles, turning back to the French toast lest he give his family anything else to tease him for. "I should just eat all the French Toast and make you all watch. Last time I make breakfast for any of you."

"French toast without any bacon on the side? What are we animals?" Santana teases, grinning when CJ looks up at the word bacon and turns to Charlie.

"Bacon! I want bacon!"

Charlie groans and wonders what he had done to be cursed with such terrible monster children. "Bacon's in the fridge." He rolled his eyes when all three of his kids cheered. Whatever, at least they stopped giving him shit about being clean-shaven.

~O~

An hour later and the breakfast dishes are piled high in the sink and CJ has been thoroughly scrubbed down from the syrupy goo monster he had managed to become thanks to Charlie's diligent efforts. Once he had brought out the bacon, CJ seemed far less terrified of his freshly shaven father. He stands in the doorway, watching as Santana finishes sanitizing the kitchen table. He almost doesn't want to say anything, the comfortable silence too fragile for him to want to break it so early.

But Santana feels him watching and looks up. "If you're just going to watch me work, at least sit down so you stop being a creeper."

He smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, I can get started on the dishes—"

"Don't worry about it." She shrugs it off. "It's the least I can do since you both made breakfast _and_ had to deal with the crazy protests about your gross beard."

He smirks, rubbing his hand over his clean-shaven chin. "I didn't realize they were so attached to it." He admits. Yeah, he's had the beard for a while but his kids acted like he chopped off his own arm or something.

Santana stills and then turns toward the sink. She's still reeling and isn't sure how she's supposed to feel. Sure, waking up at what must have been the ass-crack of dawn to find some schmuck willing to fix his terrible attempt at shaving so he could be home before anyone else woke up, seems like it should be a huge step but she just feels confused.

He notices the tensing of her shoulders and frowns. "Is something wrong?"

She blows out a breath. "No?"

Charlie furrows his brow but stays quiet. He's known Santana almost longer than anyone and he knows when she's trying to work through things in her mind. Sometimes staying quiet lets her open up more than if he were to press her.

Finally, she sighs and turns around. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what—? The _affair_? I don't know. I was stupid and young and believe me, if I could go back—"

"No." She cuts him off quickly. She doesn't need to re-hash old wounds. Though it is something that they'll need to talk about, he can't claim that he _didn't_ know. He knew, he had to know, how was she supposed to trust him not to do it again if he didn't know? "I'm not trying to bring this up again, at least not now. I just mean, the beard. Why? Why did you shave it off?"

"Because you asked me to."

"There are a _lot_ of things I've asked you to do, and you've never slunk off to get it done the next day." She points out. "So what is different this time? What changed?"

" _I_ did." Charlie stands, coming around the table to close the distance between them. "Fuck Santana, I messed up. Not just seven years ago. I messed up because I thought that there was even a chance that I could do this without you. I listened to my dad and—shit, if I could do it all over again, I would. I swear I would. I _miss_ you and I'll spend the rest of my life regretting what happened. But if there's even—if I've even got a _shot_ at earning your trust back then I'm there. There's nothing that I will let come between us again, especially not a stupid _beard_."

She searches his eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity and for a second it's as if everything else around them falls away. She closes the gap between them, gripping his t-shirt firmly between her hands and pulling him close.

He closes the distance, his towering frame melting against her in a perfect fit. It's different from the other times, the frantic kisses and sometimes mistakes that they've made since the divorce. This feels far more fragile.

He pulls away a little when he feels his dick start to stir. The kids are just down the hall and he can't do this again if it doesn't mean forever. "What does this mean?"

"It means that I'm tired of pretending I don't still love you." She explains simply. "I want—I think we owe it to ourselves to try again." She needed to know if it would work out between them.

He blinks and is tempted to pinch himself. This can't be—he's _dreamt_ of this moment and yet here it is right in front of him. "I think we should keep this between us for a while."

Santana pulls back arching her brow. "Seriously?"

He nods, even though he feels it pains him to admit it, he knows it's the right thing. "We don't need the kids—or god forbid the press—giving us any more pressure than we already have. We can't just go back to where we used to be. I know _I'm_ different than I was a year ago and if we're going to start over we need to start slow. I don't want you coming out of this looking like the bad guy."

The words are far more mature than she expected and while she doesn't disagree with him, she doesn't like the idea of keeping secrets. But the fact of the matter was, that they _weren't_ good, things weren't good between them. She still didn't trust him, not with her heart. "Since when did you get so smart?" She says finally blowing some hair out of her face. "So what do we do? I mean we've got three kids together, it's not as if we're young and we're trying this again from scratch. Dating isn't going to fix this. How do we fix us? How do I trust you again?"

It's enough to give him pause, he truly hadn't thought that far ahead. "A therapist?"

Santana raises a brow, "You always said that therapy was a load of shit."

"You agreed with me, but I _don't_ know what to do. I don't know how to earn your trust back. My word to you means _nothing_ right now, I don't even know where to begin or how to start repairing the damage. Quinn said I should stop letting my dick do all the talking for me because that's what got me in trouble in the first place."

Santana snorted at this, "Of course she would say that. We could try? A few sessions I guess. We'd have to find someone who won't go blab it to TMZ."

"I can ask Sue if she knows anyone to recommend? I'll tell her that Quinn was asking." Charlie offers.

"Sure, if you want her to kill you. Might as well tell her so she knows what to do and who to trust. Besides Quinn lives in New York—"

"'Are we going to see aunt Quinn and Beth?" Max asked popping his head into the kitchen and noting how close his parents were. He blinks when they immediately jump apart. "What are you doing?"

"Your mom was feeling my face." Charlie explains.

"Why?"

"Because it makes your dad look like a normal person again," Santana explains deciding to go with that.

"Oh. So are we going to see Beth?"

"No. Quinn will probably hand her over, or keep me locked away." Charlie made a face.

Santana raised a brow, "Worse than Bela?"

"Worse than Bela."

Santana winced. "We'll see your cousin when she can crawl and can sleep through the night. Besides CJ gets jealous when your dad holds other babies. I think he likes being his dad's baby."

Max nods and studies his parents again, "Are you sure you two aren't doing anything?"

"What do you think we'd be doing Max?" Charlie asks honestly.

"Sex?"

"Gross, not in the kitchen! We eat there!" Bela groans and looks at her parents.

"We weren't having sex—Max what have we said about sex? You're seven! You're not supposed to know what it is and our clothes are on!"

"Right. Aunt Brittany said you can have sex with your clothes on—"

"Aunt Brittany is never babysitting you again." Santana informs him turning to look at Charlie.

"I've been saying this for years." Charlie grumbles and reaches to pull Max into a hug. "Come on, let's go for a run."

"Dad, _no_." Max groans trying to run away. "Mom save me!"

Santana rolled her eyes and tried not to smile, this was her family and maybe it was time to finally fight for it.


	54. Chapter 54

" _Mom_! It's here! It's here! We're in a magazine!" Max shouted loudly as he nearly tripped as he scrambled into his mother's room. "It's _so cool!_ "

Santana groaned resisting the urge to simply pull the blanket over her head as Max flopped onto the bed and tried to shake her awake. "Max—"

"AX!" CJ shouted in an excited tone, also nearly falling as he ran after his brother laughing. "AX! Mommy! AX!"

She rubs her eyes tiredly, forlornly thinking of how great it might be to actually sleep in past six in the morning. Cracking an eye open, she wraps her arm around her two sons and pulls them close, ignoring their squirming and giggling as she half-heartedly promises herself that she's going to sleep in the next time they were with Charlie. "What's here?"

"The magazine.," Max huffs, a little out of breath. "It's finally here. We're _famous._ "

"Oh, of course." Santana smirks sleepily. "I thought that the magazine doesn't come out for another week?"

"Dad was here! He dropped off an advanced copy of the magazine, so we could have a look at it before it goes up for print. He said you should make sure that everything is okay and get back to him as soon as possible," Max repeats his father's instructions and opens the magazine so his mom can inspect it. " _See_ —we're _famous_." Max points to the picture of them with their father. "Who's that CJ?"

"ME!" CJ grins and smacks the magazine.

"And that?"

"AX!" CJ shouts again, watching as Max points to someone else. "ELA!" CJ frowns and looks around. Noting that his sister wasn't in the room. "Where Ela?"

"Sleeping. Like a normal person," Santana points out. Just as she had suspected this was Charlie's fault. Getting the kids riled up this early in the morning.

"Who's that CJ?" Max says pointing to their mom.

" _Mommy_!"

Santana blinks and rubs her eyes, there was usually paperwork to fill and she _hadn't_ given permission for her photo to be in the magazine. "Wait what?" She stares at the picture and bites her lip, it was when they were both holding CJ together. For a moment they looked like the power couple that they had been before. She reaches and touches the picture gently. It was just one of the many photos of Charlie. "What was he thinking?"

"AX!" CJ repeats earnestly smacking the magazine, like she hadn't heard him scream the first three times.

"Yes, Max is right there," Santana informs him leaning so she can blow a raspberry on his cheek. "Alright, let's hear what your dad has to say about you."

"We have to look through the _whole_ thing first." Max protests.

Santana rolls her eyes. "Right. Okay. Show me the pictures."

She lets the boys flip through the magazine. They ooh and ahh and giggle at the different photos, and even she has to be impressed with Charlie's photos, as much as she ragged on him about his awful beard, he didn't look as bad as she normally said he did. Plus, he was finally in shape again and no longer had the beer belly that he normally developed over the summers. "Now, that's a cool picture," she admits pointing to the one of Charlie flying through the air with the ball. He looked super focused and intense.

"Daddy! Where daddy?" CJ frowned trying to grab the photo. "I hungy daddy!"

Santana pet his head absentmindedly, "We'll call daddy later," she promises. She needed to, they needed to figure out when their first therapy session would be. She wanted to wait till the kids were in school, so there would be less pressure, but Charlie wanted to start right away before he was going to be flying all over the country.

"You look really pretty mommy—"

"The answer is no," Santana cuts him off. She knew that tone of voice and she wasn't going to feed into whatever Max wanted. She can't help but smile when Max huffs. She flips to the beginning, trying to read as CJ squirmed in her arms.

 **Artie Abrams: This is your second championship ring, in four years, on two different teams. What drives you to be the best?**

 **Charlie Fabray: [Laughs] My son. My family really. But mostly my oldest son, I'm not around as much as I'd like to be with my kids. With all the travel that I do, I wish I could be around them more, but since I can't I have to do my best to show them that, you need to get back up when you get knocked down, that determination and discipline are what matters. He's my biggest fan. Also my harshest critic. He has no problem telling me when my game was off and it sucked. Part of the reason my game keeps evolving is to keep him entertained.**

She smirks at that, vowing that this is a magazine article that she might keep around.

 **Abrams: Remind me sometime to send your son a Thank You card on behalf of all of your fans.**

 **Fabray: [Laughs] I'll see what I can do.**

 **Abrams: But you've been in and out of tabloids for the last few years of your career. Do you feel like your personal life has impacted the way you play the game?**

 **Fabray: Absolutely. When I was a younger player, I might have answered differently and said that I keep my personal life separate. While that's still true to some extent, I'd like to believe that I have grown up. It's easy to get caught up in your own hype and forget the eleven other guys who are working their butts off. If anything, I've learned that to be an effective force on the court I have to step up and work just as hard as every other guy on the team. I didn't earn either of those championships alone and thankfully this next year we are going to stay mostly intact. As for the scandals—I'll be the first to admit that I'm a knucklehead. It keeps getting me in trouble, but I'm human and I make mistakes and I say stupid things, and I do incredibly self-destructive things. I can't say that I'm not going to cause another scandal. But I can say that I'm going to simply stay focused on the most important things in my life. My family being the first thing, I can't keep embarrassing my oldest daughter. She's going to develop a complex.**

Santana bites her lip, it was probably his most candid interview and he came off as the same old dork she had always known, but there was a maturity there. Perhaps he had grown up. Or Sue had fed him the correct answers.

 **Abrams: Speaking of family, any chance that we're going to see the return of your youngest?**

 **Fabray: I'm not sure, probably not. He's got a bed time and it's tough enough getting him to go to sleep without him waking up and demanding attention. Maybe he'll be able to join me for some post-game interviews. He might actually like that. Though he'll probably make you worry that I'm not feeding him.**

Santana rolled her eyes, and kissed CJ's head gently. "You really need to cut your dad some slack when it comes to food. I know you take after him but come on."

CJ ignored his mom and smacked the magazine again causing Max to laugh loudly. "But we look good right?"

"Of course you do, now let me _read_ the article? Then I'll make breakfast." Santana says brushing CJ's hand away from the article so she can continue to read.

 **Abrams: Any regrets? Once upon a time you were the man in LA, you wore that purple and gold and coming to Cleveland, was that something that you had always planned?**

 **Fabray: Well, I'll be honest I was born here. In Ohio, grew up in a town called Lima, though there's something addictive about Los Angeles. The spotlight is so much brighter and being a part of that history, it's an honor. I have very few regrets in life. Biggest regret, cheating on my ex-wife. It wasn't just her that I disappointed and hurt, I hurt my kids, my fans, everyone who looked up to me. Like I mentioned, I was incredibly self-destructive back when I was younger, and I was arrogant and thought that I wouldn't be caught. But I grew up. I'd like to think I'm better now. But I'm doing well, things have been going well, and I'm happy. There's still that spotlight but maybe I've gotten used to it. It's just not as bright.**

Santana sighs and looks at the rest of the article, he was sorry. That didn't make what he had done to their family okay, but maybe they needed to fix what was broken together. She still loved the dork.

~O~

"Mom, we need to talk about dad," Bela said as she fished out her phone from her purse and pulled up a video on it before pushing it towards her mother.

Santana groaned and looked at her parents, all she had wanted was a quiet dinner. She didn't need Bela's dramatics. "What did he do this time?"

"Please tell me it's not another scandal," Maribel muttered under her breath. The boy seemed to be a magnet for trouble.

"It _is_ another scandal," Bela insists tapping play on the phone, nodding her head as music began to play loudly. She winces as her mother rolls her eyes and turns it down. "Just—wait for it. I promise you it's the most embarrassing thing he's done yet."

Santana blinked as she watched CJ dancing, he wasn't any good at it but he was two years old, any attempt really was adorable. It was clear that he was enjoying himself, it only took a moment before Max joined him shaking his butt and hopping around like a madman, he was sure she could hear Brittany laughing in the background and she had a feeling she knew where this was going to go next. "Oh tell me he didn't."

"He _did_." Bela informs her mother.

Santana watches as the camera suddenly turns to Charlie who is doing his weird attempt at dancing, and it's just as bad as it had been during their wedding. "Oh—has he gotten worse?"

Carlos glances over his daughter's shoulder and winces, "I thought you said you banned him from dancing? May I suggest deleting the video? You can do that right?"

"I'll talk to him." She promises Bela. There's only so much mortification they can expect Bela to endure before she turns into some moody rebellious teenager.

Maribel narrows her eyes. "Just like that? I didn't realize that you and Charlie were on such good terms."

Santana winces but tries to school her face. Her mother was like a human lie detector and she would go for blood if there was any hint that she and Charlie were mending fences. "He _is_ the kids' father. I have to talk to him." She points out. It's the thing that makes the most sense and she's not even sure what they _are_ now anyway. Turning the phone toward Maribel, she restarts the video, "But this can't be a thing that he does."

Maribel watches and then cringes. "Put that away, please."

"I thought it was cool." Max notes around a mouthful of spaghetti.

Santana raises an eyebrow, "Which is why your aunt Brittany is going to be giving you dance lessons. I realized that you take after your dad in the dance department, and it's cute now but when you're older you probably won't think it's so cute."

"If I remember correctly, you thought it was cute when you were thirteen and he couldn't dance," Carlos mused.

Santana scoffed, "No, I just didn't care. He was enjoying himself, and he was a teenager. This is what happens when you let it fester."

"It's a _dad_ dance. You only need one move when you become a father." Carlos defends.

"Which is probably why I don't have any siblings," Santana sniffs, watching as her mother snorts at the comment. She glances at the video and watches as Charlie dances with CJ who is laughing. She can't help but smile. He looked like he was having fun, "All I'm going to say is that he's not allowed to dance like that outside of his apartment."

"Well I guess that isn't that bad," Bela sighs, and looks at Max who is chewing on his spaghetti thoughtfully. "Aunt Brittany can probably help you dance like a normal person."

Max shrugged and looked at his mom and crinkles his nose, "I don't know why dancing is so important. You fell in love with dad and he can't dance."

Santana shrugged, her kids loved hearing stories about how they met and what their dad was like. "Yes, I did. Your father had other things going for him."

"Like?" Maribel asked frowning slightly.

"He was kind, he was intelligent, and he loved me more than anything. He was also my best friend in the world." Santana responds with a wave of her hand. That was what was missing, somewhere along the way their friendship had shattered. "I loved your father very much, and when you love someone you love every part of them. Including the fact that they can't dance to save their life."

"Oh," Max bit the inside of his cheek. "I'll take lessons from Aunt Brittany then!"

"Good choice," Bela said after a moment and looked at her mom curiously. She decides to ignore it for now, her parents had the nasty habit of lying to them about their relationship status and it was far too much of a headache. It was just that her mom seemed a bit happier when it came to talking about her dad.

Maribel tilted her head towards her daughter, "Are you—"

Santana sighed, of course her mother would pick up on it. She always did. "I'll talk to you about it later," she promises.

Maribel was about to turn to Carlos to make sure he talked some sense into his daughter when he grins, " _Finally_. It's about time."

Maribel frowned and even Santana turned to her father surprised. "Carlos!"

"What it is? But as Santana said, we'll talk about it after the kids have gone to bed."

"Talk about what?" Max asked.

Santana hesitates for a moment, she hadn't thought this through and she didn't exactly know what to say to the kids. But Charlie was probably trying to avoid Max's disappointment more than anything. "Well, we've got to talk about some business opportunities that I have. Someone wants me to write a book." Max immediately loses interest and she rolls her eyes. But dealing with Max's questions would probably be a lot easier then dealing with her mother's disapproval.


	55. Chapter 55

Charlie exhaled as he finished his quick shadow boxing in the elevator, grinning when the door opened. There were days when he just felt pumped up like today, even after a full workout it still felt like he could run a marathon. Today was one of those days, and their scrimmage had gone exceedingly well for him. "Okay, call the kids, make dinner, see if Maribel and Carlos have left and then maybe I could talk to Santana before bed." He muttered planning his night out perfectly only to stop at his door and stare at the person sitting in front of his door. "Dani? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Hey Chuck? When you sound like that, it almost sounds like you're not pleased to see your best friend."

"I don't know what you mean by best friend, more like biggest pain in my ass," Charlie responds flatly. "What are you doing in Ohio. Also what do you want?"

"A favor."

"No."

Dani puffed out her cheeks. "Look, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important."

"Your definition of what's important and what mine is, are two completely different things," Charlie responds flatly. "You kissed my ex-wife. I don't even know why we're even friends. You have the hots for my ex-wife."

"Charlie there are millions of people out there who have the hots for Santana. She's _fucking hot_. You know this, and that makes it even hotter is _she_ knows this. Can you blame me?"

"Yes?" Charlie rolls his eyes and grabs his keys out of his pocket. "Seriously though what do you want?"

"Well—a magazine has _pictures_. I don't know what happened but I was just out with this girl—can't even remember her name really, and some fucking paparazzi took a picture of an—intimate moment."

Charlie raised a brow. "Were you having sex outside?"

Dani flushed deeply, "No. No! I promise. It was just a kiss. She kissed me, honestly I think it was a set up. But now they're going to print some _garbage_ about how I'm a lesbian."

"You _are_ a lesbian." Charlie responds flatly, as he opens his door and throws his duffel bag to the side.

"That's _not_ the point. Hollywood isn't as _liberal_ as people think it is. The executives only think about the bottom line, and I tour in countries that aren't exactly friendly to the community, it's how I make my money."

"I'm failing to see how I can help you. This seems like a _you_ problem."

"You're an asshole."

"Never claimed I wasn't but continue." Charlie responds with a wave of his hand as he opens his fridge and grabs some fresh fish.

"Look, they're going to run with the story and I need to get ahead of this. I'm not ready to come out and quite frankly it's no one's business but mine. So I need you to be seen with me, the media loved us together—"

"No."

"No?"

Charlie opened a cupboard and grabbed some of his seasonings as he began to flavor his fish and grabbed a pan that was hanging upside down and some oil. "I can't. I promised my son that I wouldn't _date_ anyone unless it was Santana."

"Your son is two years old."

"Other one."

"Oh right you have three kids," Dani mused and shrugs. "Look, I can sit him down and explain to him that we're not really dating that you're just doing a favor for a friend. More importantly Santana knows so you two won't be fighting about the pictures."

"No." Charlie responds again throwing the fish onto the pan. "I can't."

"Charlie." Dani whines. "This isn't just my career that's in danger. With something like _this_? I could have psycho stalker fans come after me. At the _very_ least it's months if not _years_ of PR rehab. _Please."_

"Dani, we're friends but I have a real shot with Santana. I _can't_."

"At least let me _ask her._ It doesn't have to be something that messes up whatever you have going on with her. I just need a warm male body to kill the rumors."

Charlie turns to look at her. "I am not a piece of meat."

"You're right. I'm sorry. You're not a piece of meat, you're my best male friend and I need a few pictures." Dani pleaded. "I'm literally _desperate_. I don't have another option—not one that the press will believe as easily as they will if it's pictures with you."

Charlie groans. He knows he's a sucker, but he feels bad. He knows what it's like to be on the bad end of a Hollywood scandal and Dani _was_ his friend. "Whatever. You can talk to Santana, but if _she_ says no. That's the end of it. Deal?"

"I could kiss you right now!" Dani squeals excitedly.

"Gross, please don't." Charlie grumbles. He didn't want to be Dani's arm candy for any extended point in time, but he really did have a problem saying no.

~O~

Maribel slammed the tabloid down on the table. "What the hell is this?"

Santana doesn't look up from reading her production plan for the new season of her show. "Don't you recognize your grandkids? Maybe you should go see a doctor, early onset Alzheimer's is a thing."

"My _beautiful_ grandchildren are not—" Maribel shakes her head. She didn't come here to verbally spar with her daughter. Santana's teenager years had been more than enough for that. "My _question_ is; why do you look very cozy with your ex-husband?"

"Charlie is trying to strengthen his brand, and by that I mean cleaning up his image." Santana shrugged. "We took a picture together, it looked good and the kids wanted it. Charlie and I didn't see a reason why we shouldn't. So we did. This isn't a big deal."

Maribel watches her daughter closely. Most people would say that she was a great liar, but she had tells that only a mother would know. "You're lying."

"Mami, can't you just _please_ let this go?" Santana was close to begging.

"No. I can't let this go. Not when that boy gets to use you any time it's convenient for him, without being the committed family man he always pretended to be. Santana, I just want you to be careful. What type of message do you think you're sending to your children, to _Bela_?"

"I _think_ that we've tried to show our kids that despite not being together, Charlie and I can work things out."

"You don't expect me to believe that."

"It's the truth, so why wouldn't you?"

Maribel throws up her hands in disbelief. "I give up. You're hopeless."

"If dad cheated on you would you, wouldn't you try and fix it? Do everything it took to fix it?"

"It's not the same thing and you know it. Don't make me go through his greatest hits Santana. Which is why I ask why you're here making a statement."

Santana pinched the bridge of her nose, "That we're willing to try and make it work. The kids don't even know we're trying again. That we're _actually_ trying."

"And why don't they know? Don't you think they _deserve_ to know that their parents are contemplating a major life decision _again_. Kids need stability Santana." Maribel cautions.

"Please. My kids are fine. If anything they are far too observant, and I don't want to get their hopes up if it's not going to work out. Besides they _like_ it when he's around and it's a lot easier to deal with them when I'm not outnumbered three to one."

"Three to one—you aren't pregnant again?"

" _Mami_!" Santana snaps looking up at her. "No, I'm not pregnant."

"Are you _sure_?"

"For fuck's sake, Mami. _Yes_. I'm sure. We're just going to couples counselling. I need to trust him again, I need to know that he's not going to cheat on me again when he's unhappy. I mean I know he probably won't but there's that little voice at the back of my head that says he will and if we're going forward I need to forgive him completely."

Maribel arches her brow. "Excuse me for doubting you, but if I remember correctly, you weren't exactly trying for _any_ of your three children. I had started to believe that you didn't know how to use birth control. As for trusting him. TMZ has spotted him with one of his ex-girlfriend's going to a club together. He's a thirty year old man, who has three kids. What is he doing at a club?"

Santana decided to ignore the jab at her inability to manage her birth control, she and Charlie were on and off sexually. He never carried condoms with him and she wasn't the best when it came to taking her pills. "Probably being miserable. He's helping a friend."

"How convenient." Maribel scoffed.

"Is there something else you wanted, or did you just come here to lob pot shots at my love life?" Santana challenged. When her mother doesn't answer Santana sighs, "I love him. Lord knows how much I've tried to move on, but I _love_ him. I do. So we're going to try again, for the kids, for _us_. I can look at him and he can smile at me and I know that we can be _that_ , again." Santana points to the cover. "The emotions that you see there aren't faked. Those pictures on TMZ? I sat my children down and explained the situation to them. A friend needed a favor, Charlie is being a decent person even though he doesn't want to be." Santana sighs. "We're _trying_ to be more open and honest with each other."

"And you believe him?"

"About this? Yes. I do." Santana answered honestly. It was a step in the right direction right?


	56. Chapter 56

The start of the school year should be a well-oiled machine by now, but today was anything but. "Max—that is not how you tie a tie!"

"I don't want to wear a tie! It's too tight and I look stupid!" Max said from where he was trying to shovel cereal into his mouth.

"I thought you said we were getting new laptops; why do I have notebooks." Bela grumbled looking at her backpack. "And this skirt is _ugly_ , and sexist."

"Do you even know what that means?" Santana groans as she struggled to clean CJ up, how he had managed to get jam in his hair was a mystery. Of all the days for Tina to be out sick, this time of the year was the worst. Between CJ's fascination with making a mess and Max's poor attempts to put on clothes, it was quickly turning up to be a nightmare. "Also roll down your skirt, you're 12 Bela, you're 12."

"I believe that we should have some individuality and—"

"You're going to a new school, that isn't filled with a bunch of criminals. They have a dress code. You will follow that dress code, which is why you can't wear your _Jordan's_ to school Max. Wear your dress shoes. Your dad took you out to get them shined and everything."

"But I'll look like a _putz_." Max whines.

Really, it's far too early for this. "Then you're going to fit in. Go get your shoes on, _now_." She encourages just as the doorbell rings. "Bela, can you get the door?"

"Fine." Bela grumbles. She gets up and heads toward opening it, a smile flitting across her face when she sees who it is. " _Dad_! What are you doing here?"

Charlie accepted the hug picking up his daughter, "I missed too many first days so I made sure that today was free, don't worry I brought sunglasses and a hoodie so people won't swarm me." He pauses when Bela takes a step back narrowing his eyes. "Your skirt is too short."

" _Dad_!"

"Bela!" Charlie responds whining in the same tone she had used. He flashes her a grin, when she finally realizes she isn't going to get her way and rolls down her skirt. He takes a step inside the house pulling Bela close to him.

" _Dad_!"

Charlie turns and is about to hug his son when he notices Max's tie, which is crooked and far too long. "Max! That's not how you wear a tie!"

"That's what I said." Santana points out with a pointed smirk in her oldest son's direction.

"I hate it." Max frowns.

"Well you'd better get used to it. You'll be wearing a tie for the rest of your life."

Max slouches. "I hate growing up."

"Tell me about it, do you want me to teach you how to tie a tie?" Charlie ask reaching so he could undo his son's tie. "

"Yeah."

Charlie grins and places the tie around his neck and heads into the kitchen and grins at Santana, who raises a brow at him. "Want to help me with my tie?"

Santana pauses and looks at Max who is covering his mouth trying not to laugh and she rolls her eyes, he was supposed to be _helping_ her. "Teaching your son your bad habits is not a _good_ thing. All because you're too lazy to tie your tie doesn't mean that he should be. Teach him how to do it himself."

Charlie sighs dramatically, and looks over at CJ, who was holding out his sticky hands. "Let me finish getting Max's tie ready then I'll help you wash your hands."

"Daddy _up_!" CJ demands. "I hungy!"

Charlie rolls his eyes and quickly adjusts Max's tie and hands it to him. "You're always hungry, it's like your thing, even though it's obvious that you've already had something to eat." He watches Max for a moment adjusting his tie. "There we go little man, now onto washing CJ's hands." He turns to Santana who rolls her eyes and hands him CJ who immediately smacks his jam covered hands on his father's face.

Santana shakes her head, "My parents can't watch him today, Tina picked the _perfect_ time to get sick."

Charlie frowns slightly, there was no way in hell he was leaving his son with Brittany, the last thing he needed was CJ getting lost. Or Brittany losing track of him, he turns to Santana carefully, today was the only free day that _they both_ had in their schedules which was why they had picked today to go to therapy. "Well, it is what it is then?" He begins to wash CJ's hands slowly. "Just grab his go bag, and the iPad?" That would probably entertain him for an hour or so. Hopefully, it was hard to tell with CJ sometimes.

Santana nods, there wasn't a lot that they could do, with the kids going back to school, it's not like she could leave Bela in charge for an hour. Not that she would, she wasn't quite sure if she was ready to deal with partying twelve-year-olds again. Her parents were their backup and Charlie's mother was simply out of the question. While Judy was still dating or sleeping with Russell she was no longer allowed near their children. "Alright, let's get into the car and then we'll get to school."

"We can take the Shelby, I got it all cleaned up."

"Really?"

Santana's eyes narrowed. "No. Charlie. We're taking the minivan."

"But the minivan makes me feel _old_."

"You _are_ old, Dad." Bela scoffs. "Which is why you have a sports car. It's a mid-life crisis."

"Enough." Santana shakes her head at her family's antics.

"I'm just over 30."

"Midlife crisis!" Bela teases.

"I have the power to ground you," Charlie reminds her.

Bela opens her mouth and closes it again, deciding it was probably best not to argue. "Are we ready to go?"

"That's more like it." Charlie grins triumphantly. "Now fix your skirt and get in the minivan." He turns to Santana and raises a brow. "It makes me feel like a _dad_."

"You have three kids; you _are_ a dad." Santana reminds him pointing at CJ who was now clinging to him tightly. "I'll drive, or the kids are going to be late." She informs him. Reaching to grab CJ's go bag and placing the iPad into it. Hopefully he could watch quietly, without bursting out into what everyone assumed was a song.

~O~

"AX! I wan Ax!" CJ kicked as he struggled in his father's grip trying to break away, his face streaked with tears.

"Aw come on little man, Max and Bela had to go to school. They needed to learn remember?" Charlie reminded him trying to keep him still. "You're going to see Max soon, I promise."

Santana dug through Max's bag and pulled out the bag of baby cookies that he liked so much. "You hungry CJ? I've got your juice and I have some cookies?" CJ sniffled at this and turned to his mother reaching for the bag of cookies. Santana looks at Charlie. "Maybe we should have postponed this, you know how he gets and he apparently misses having his brother around."

"We should start looking into pre-schools. Or actual schools," Charlie points out. "He needs to start having his own friends don't you think?"

Santana made a face, and ran a hand along CJ's head, "He's a bit young don't you think?"

"But he's smart, and devious and I think he needs to learn to be around kids his own age. It beats putting him in front of the television and hoping he picks up the right things." Charlie points out. "I mean he knows what a dog says right CJ? What does a doggy say?" Charlie stares at his son who stuffs another cookie into his mouth and then sips his juice. "Come on CJ don't leave me hanging."

"Pizza." CJ grins widely and giggles at his own joke.

Charlie groans loudly and flops onto his seat, before petting CJ's head gently, "Just like your mom."

"Me? You're the one that got him hooked to _junk food_ ," Santana snipes at him, at least they didn't have to worry about anyone else showing up. They had booked a two-hour window for this couple's session. It wasn't exactly how she had planned it and she didn't want the counsellor to think that they were using their son as some sort of tool against one another.

"Don't think I don't know about the secret stash of chocolate in your bedside table." He retorts flippantly. He frowns at the magazine collection on the coffee table, outdated issues of nothing he's interested in reading. But a couple of minutes of discomfort are worth it if he and Santana can figure out a way to get themselves back on track.

"Mr. Fabray and Ms. Lopez? I'm ready for you now if you'd like to get started."

Charlie startled at the new voice but relaxed when he realized that the doctor had simply poked her head out of the office. He wasn't in the mood to field questions from well-intentioned observers who wanted to pry into their lives. "Yeah, sure. Sorry that we had to bring our son, our sitters all cancelled." He apologizes before Santana can make a bigger deal out of it than she needs to. She always worries about stuff like that and Charlie doesn't want the unexpected company of their youngest son to screw this up.

Santana shoots Charlie a grateful look and hoists CJ onto her hip. "Doctor Pillsbury. It's nice to finally meet you in person. We appreciate you blocking out your schedule for us."

"Please, call me Emma." The woman scratches her temple and leads them into her office. It's nice, simple and both of them can tell why Sue recommended her.

Charlie exhales and adjusts his son in his arms carrying him into the office, "Say hello CJ."

CJ glances at the new woman in the room and immediately tries to cling tighter to his father. "No!"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "He's usual a bit friendlier than this," he promises.

"Don't worry it's usual at that age," Emma says with a smile. "My office isn't exactly baby proof—"

"Don't worry we brought the iPad and a few snacks, it should keep him preoccupied for a while—not that we keep him in front of a television all the time." Santana says quickly, she didn't know why she felt so defensive about her child-rearing. Her kids were normal—relatively speaking. They hadn't burned anything down yet, as far as she was concerned she was winning.

Emma doesn't say anything instead motions for them to sit on the couch and watches as CJ tries to crawl all over his father. She doesn't mind waiting as she pulls out a notepad and adjusts the pens on her desk just right. "Just relax, as you know this is a _safe_ space. Which means that you're free to speak your minds, though I have to tell you now so you don't misunderstand me. All because you can speak your mind doesn't mean that there won't be consequences for your actions. Quite a few people seem to not understand that and once the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak." Emma smiles at the two of them.

"Right, that makes sense." Charlie mumbles as he puts the kid friendly headphones onto CJ's head so he can hear his show. He still loved Diego, and that's what was loaded up on the iPad.

"So what exactly are your goals?" Emma presses.

"Goals?" Santana echoes and immediately reaches to place a hand on Charlie's leg, she wasn't a fan of the bouncing he did when he got nervous.

"There has to be a reason that you came to counselling." Emma explains. "I find it is incredibly helpful to articulate exactly what you're looking to get out of therapy. I want to make sure we prioritize both of your goals throughout our session."

"Right." Santana cringes. She should have anticipated this and she looks over to Charlie for help. Maybe they could come up with something on the spot?

But Charlie came prepared. He shifts CJ on his lap and fishes out the piece of paper from his pocket. "I hope it's okay, but I wrote mine down. I didn't want to forget anything."

"Whatever makes you comfortable." Emma encourages.

He clears his throat and avoids Santana's eyes. "Well I guess, first and most important I want us to be able to work on our relationship so that no matter what happens we can be better parents to our kids. I know we're both hesitant to kind of jump right into everything and just be in exactly the same spot we were before. It's like a play in the last couple seconds of the game, we don't want to fall back into a pattern that isn't working."

It's a surprisingly thoughtful insight and Santana has to school her features to hide her shock. She knew he wanted to make things work, but she hadn't expected him to be this serious about it.

"Anything else?"

"I want us to be able to trust each other again. I know a lot of that is my fault, but that's ultimately where I'd like for us to get." He feels his cheeks heat up at the admission. He wasn't easily embarrassed, but he wasn't good at talking about his feelings. "If I'm being totally honest, I'd love for us to get back together. I'd love for us to have our family be complete again."

"Well thank you for being so candid, Charlie." Emma turns to Santana expectantly. "And what goals do you have, Santana?"

"I guess some of the same as Charlie." She shifts in her seat uncomfortably.

"You guess? You don't sound as sure."

Santana frowns, she didn't want the focus to really be on her. "I don't trust him. I don't know if I can ever trust him again. I mean I thought we were happy, and yet he was out there with a different girl on his arm and having sex. I mean I love him but it's not the same way I felt back in high school. I don't think we can _ever_ be the same."

Emma nods, "I see, do you want to tell me exactly _why_ you don't trust him?"

Santana frowned, "You don't read the Enquirer? Of course you don't, well take your pick of his greatest hits. Having an affair while I was pregnant and at home with his children. Making a sex tape of his affairs. The tape leaked, so throw in the humiliation of being the woman that he cheated on. I've actually lost track of every last little thing he's done to betray me, to humiliate me, to stab me in the back."

Emma turns to Charlie who had sunk down on the couch, his face red. "Well, that's a lot to take in. But first things first. Charlie, are you still seeing another woman?"

"No. God no. I stopped prior to my son being born—Max, my middle child, I stopped doing that ages before she ever found out that I had cheated."

Emma frowned slightly, "You mean to say that the affair—"

"Affairs, he slept with ten different women." Santana interrupts feeling the anger start to boil as she thought about it. "While I was playing the picture perfect spouse."

Charlie cringes but doesn't say anything. He doesn't have any right to defend himself.

But Emma notices his discomfort. "Charlie? Do you feel like that makes you untrustworthy?"

"Well yeah, I guess so." He scratches the back of his head. "I mean, I was young and stupid. I let the fame and the excitement get to my head and I thought I could do no wrong. But it was over eight years ago. I made mistakes, I did. But I was completely faithful to you after that." He turns to Santana. "And it's not like you were completely honest with _me_."

"Do you know what he's referring to?" Emma asks Santana.

"Of course I do." She snaps. "He's _referring_ to the fact that I wasn't a hundred percent certain that he was the father of our oldest daughter. But that was _different_. We weren't even together at the time."

"We were taking a break; it was March Madness Santana—"

"Yes, you mean when you were too busy to pay any attention to me?"

"The reason I am currently in the NBA right now is because I did so well and focused, and when you're around it's impossible to focus on what I needed to." Charlie responds. "I didn't go around sleeping with a bunch of people I was focused on making sure that we had options."

"You just waited until we were married to cheat on me."

"I—"

Santana turns back to Emma, "It's his child. All of the children are his."

Charlie crossed his arms over his chest, "Yeah."

Emma nods and looks at Santana, "We'll get to the paternity issues a bit later. I just have a few more questions to ask you. So this was one of those situations, where you felt pressure to marry because you were having a child together?"

Santana froze she had never given it much consideration, that Charlie had felt _obligated_ to be with her.

"No. I didn't feel obligated to marry her; I mean my dad thought it was a _terrible_ idea. If anything he tried to talk me out of it. But—I was going to be a _dad_ , and I loved Santana. I have loved her since we've met probably. I mean up until that point, she was the only person I had ever kissed, I had ever been with. It was always going to be her. It was a bit earlier than I had expected but that was always my plan."

"Your father didn't approve?"

"My father's a racist, and a misogynist, so of course he didn't approve."

"His father was also his manager for most of his NBA career so he was in our lives constantly. You should have seen the pre-nup he made us sign." Santana scoffs bitterly, only to smile when CJ turns to look at her. "Which meant that he was _constantly_ at the house putting me down, I'm sure he was telling you that I was a gold digger."

"Is this true?" Emma asked and Charlie shrugged, sinking further into the chair. "You're going to need to use your words Charlie."

"Yes, but I've always known that my dad was like that. He was still my dad—"

"Who basically crawled out of the woodwork when he signed an NBA contract. He hamstrung Charlie's career, and he released the sex-tape to TMZ so he could buy himself a sports car," Santana throws in.

Emma turned to Charlie for confirmation, "All of that is mostly true, no point in defending him. Look, my history and my feelings on my father are _complicated_. But he's no longer a part of my life, he released another video of my son to TMZ, there is a lawsuit in the works."

"I see," Emma blows out a breath, this was far more complicated than she had anticipated. "Was he an absent father?"

"Yes." Santana responds immediately.

"No," Charlie blinks and turns to look at her. "He was there."

"Please, you spent more time at my place with Quinn and Brittany because you all hated being at home. My parents complained about the price of food of feeding three Fabray's. He was there, but being at home sucked, because he was a miserable person to be around. He drank, both of his parents are alcoholics. He yelled and screamed, he made promises and then broke them. Treated you like you were some sort of sissy, do you remember when you dropped off the football team how bad it was?" Santana challenges, turning to Emma. "He has very selective memory about his father."

"Do you think that it affects how he parents his children? Many people in those situation, especially men who grow up with father's that aren't present, or aren't around or are alcoholics usually have a harder time connecting with their kids."

"He's the _fun_ parent."

"You sound a bit upset by that fact."

Santana sighs, "He's a good father, and yes the kids wish he was around more. But for the most part they love it that he's an NBA superstar, so they _understand_. I mean even when he disciplines them, they still like him more than me, because 'dad's place' doesn't have any rules and they can do whatever they want and dad will buy them whatever they want."

"I don't think—"

"You bought our children a _dune buggy_ for Christmas to one up me." Santana turns to him cutting him off. "You had a Shelby GT custom made into a power-wheels so CJ can drive it around the house, thus damaging quite a bit of my furniture. He's basically a giant kid, who enjoys watching cartoons and eating cereal with them on Saturday mornings." Santana makes a face at this, "He's a good father, and it's not as if he doesn't _discipline_ them. He does."

"Ah," Emma nods and continues to write everything down. "Just a few more questions. Are you two—intimate? Or have you been intimate since the divorce?"

"Yes."

"That's going to need to stop for now, people fall into the same patterns when intimacy of that nature is involved."

"That isn't going to be a problem," Santana crosses her arms over her chest narrowing her eyes at him.

"I no longer want to be used as a booty call! Sue me." Charlie responds with a wave of his hand.

Emma held out her hand, there wasn't any bite to their words and they almost seemed comfortable with one another. "Okay. There seems to be quite a lot of information that we're going to have to unpack, but so long as you're truthful here then I can see an avenue for you two to rebuild your relationship. If that's what you really want, it's obvious that you two still care very much about each other. I watched you with your son and most people with half the issues that you have are in a tougher situation. But I think the foundation is still there. You're both going to have to work on this. It's hard and there will be times when you feel that you're regressing but I promise you that there is a lot of hurt emotions on both sides. So as long as you remember that then we can move forward."

Charlie nods and turns to Santana, "I'm willing to work on this, and put in the time and effort to make this work. I am willing to put this first. I know my schedule is going to be hectic especially with the start of the season just around the corner. But I will make sure that I will make it to every session that I can."

"We'll have to synchronize our calendars so that when your assistant puts something in your calendar I'll get an alert to it and vice versa." Santana pauses and turns to him. "You _do remember_ how to do that don't you?"

"I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"Uhuh," Santana rolls her eyes, and grins when CJ puts the iPad down and decides to crawl on top of her to curl up. She rubs his back and turns to Emma, "So do you really think that we can make this work? That you can make me trust him again."

"I think; you wouldn't be trying this if you honestly didn't believe that there wasn't something that you could do to rekindle your relationship. I'm not saying that this will work, but there is hope that you can fix this. So long as you're honest and open with one another and you don't jump to conclusions. People's feelings are _complicated_ and cheating—well it makes for a complicated story but it's not one that I haven't heard before. It's something that we'll have to unpack, why Charlie felt the urge to cheat on you, how your relationship was post-these affairs, is part of your anger on him _based_ on the fact that you felt humiliated."

"Well, when the cops arrest your husband on the charge of _rape_ , and splash his face all over the internet and the front page—after you've said a million times that you trusted him and what a great guy he was on television. You try not feeling like an _idiot_. You try not being _humiliated_. But I gave him a chance to make it right to show me that he would do anything but he couldn't even manage that."

Charlie frowns, "You think if I had known that my father had been the one to leak the tape that I wouldn't have fired him? I probably would have put him in the hospital."

"You knew who your dad was, you heard what he said and did to Quinn when she came out. You should have fired him years ago."

"I know that—"

"Daddy, shhh!" CJ grumbles and reaches over to try and swat his father's mouth. He buries his face into his mother's chest. "Shh!"

Charlie groaned and looked at Emma who was trying not to laugh, "I'm sorry he gets like that when he's sleepy."

"Well I think that it's a good place to stop, you're both getting worked up and saying things in anger isn't the best way to go about this. Especially not in front of your son, he'll start picking things up."

"Don't worry, Tina should be better by then—or we'll look into putting him in for daycare or something." Charlie said reaching to rub CJ's head.

"Though when he inevitably gets sick because daycares are basically petri-dishes for various infections, you're on night duty." Santana tilts her head to smile at Emma, "Thank you, we'll see you next week at the same time."

"Of course, perhaps it would be easier to fit you in _after_ office hours."

"I think that might be a bit better for our schedules, for the most part my evenings are clear until the season starts," Charlie turns to Santana. "Does that work for you?"

"It does." Santana nods, especially since she could make Bela babysit for an hour or two.


	57. Chapter 57

" _Mom_!" Max yelled as he knocked on her door and entered her room without waiting for a response. "I need you to wash my gym clothes, I spilt chocolate milk on it at lunch today. It was an accident but—" Max stopped and stared at his mom narrowing his eyes as he stared at her. "What are you doing?"

Santana rolled her eyes, "I've got a—dinner meeting with someone Max, I told you I had somewhere to be tonight. When you got in from school today remember? That's why Tina's still around tonight."

"With who?" Max presses, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Max, I'm an adult—"

"Are you seeing _Sebastian_ again?" Max interrupts. His mom had worn something similar when she was still with Sebastian. Bela had told him that when his mom looked super pretty she was going on a date with someone.

"No," Santana answers honestly. "I haven't spoken to Sebastian since we broke up—"

"Good! He's a _putz_." Max nods his head sagely.

"Thank you for your opinion Maximus. Now why don't you go tell Tina what you need? I don't want to be late and I still have to do my makeup and hair." Santana presses hoping that it's the end of Max's current interrogation. It was worse than being grilled by her mother. Unfortunately, Max had always been an inquisitive child. She blamed Charlie.

"Are you going on a date?"

Santana paused for a moment, Max had been touchy about the family thing as of late. He got upset, and it was part of the reason that they hadn't told him anything. She bites the inside of her lip, "I am," she holds her hand up before Max can explode. "Max. I know you're upset and you think that I should be with your dad, even though I'm _not_ his property, and I can be with whoever I want. I know you want this family to be a _family_ again. But this might not end up being a thing. This may not work out."

Max scowled, "Is he a putz?"

Santana grinned, "Yes. He is."

Max studied his mother, she'd never said that before. "So why are you going out with a putz?"

Santana shrugged, she didn't like outright lying to her children. It was one thing to not tell them things, it was another to inform them that Santa still existed. But outright lying to them was not something that she did. "I don't really know. He can be quite charming when he wants to be," Santana admits. "Max, I promise you that everything will be alright."

"Does dad know?"

"Your father doesn't own me Max. I don't have to tell him where I'm going or who I'm going to be going out with," Santana lectures him. "But yes, your father knows. He's perfectly okay with it."

Max frowned, "He promised me he wouldn't date—"

Santana pats him on the head, "I'm not doing that Max. I love you, you're my son and I value your opinion greatly but I'm _not_ allowing you to control that part of my life. I know this is difficult for you but I get to be happy as well. So does your father. He should never have promised that. The only thing that I can promise you is that I won't bring home anyone that I'm not serious about. And if you do meet someone as my boyfriend then you _know_ that it's serious and I really truly like this guy and maybe even love him."

"If I think he's a putz, then I'm going to say that he's a putz," Max insisted.

Santana smiled to herself, the fun she could have with that. "Fine, but that doesn't mean that you can be rude to him."

Max's shoulders slump in defeat. He had wanted his mom to cancel tonight, but the hard set of her jaw meant he wasn't going to get his way. "Fine." He draws it out as long as he can, huffing in the only show of indigence he can muster and stay out of trouble.

Santana smiles at her son, pushing the hair out of his eyes and mentally makes a note that he needs another haircut. "That's good enough for now, I guess. Now go ask Tina to help you before it stains and I have to buy you new gym clothes."

Max sighs and balls his shirt in his fist. It's his _favorite_ and he feels a little tug of urgency to do as his mom says. He stops at the door, chewing on his cheek before turning back around. "You look really pretty."

"Thank you Max." Santana smiles. At least her son had picked up _some_ good trait of Charlie's.

"I bet Dad would say so too." He smirks and runs off before she can lecture him again.

But his words only cause Santana's smirk to broaden. Hopefully Max would be right. It seemed soon, far too soon to be going out with him. But she needed to know that what she felt wasn't the dying embers of their relationship. She exhales, she was looking forward to having an adult conversation.

~O~

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for Santana, there was a large part of him which was nervous. There was another part of him that was surprised that Santana had agreed to this little date. They hadn't done something like this since they were teenagers, and there had been a lot of stuttering and tripping over his own two feet. Maybe that's where they had gone wrong, they hadn't done this when they had first gotten married.

"You know, I thought that we're going to actually go _out_ until we were ready for the world to know," Santana muses and watches as Charlie nearly falls out of his seat. She bites her lip and tries to keep her face straight as he stares at her in awe, it was nice to know that she still had it.

"I—wow. I mean—wow Santana."

Santana rolled her eyes and looked around the restaurant, it was just the two of them. "How much is this costing you?"

"Nothing. The owner owed Sue a favor, and she made sure everyone who was working here signed non-disclosure agreements." Charlie swallowed and immediately got up so he could pull out a chair for Santana.

Santana nods and takes a seat, "Well, it's a nice place," she offers.

"Better than Breadstixx?" Charlie prompts.

"Are you kidding me? Unlimited breadsticks? That place was the best place."

"It was the _only_ place in Lima, and the breadsticks were absolutely revolting." Charlie reminds her.

"That didn't stop you from eating a lot of them with me," Santana reminds him. "Of course back then you'd eat almost anything. You know my parents thought you had a black hole in there." She watches as Charlie takes a seat across from her. "You know that place is still open."

"We should take the kids there one day. Bela would probably think it's romantic or some shit." Charlie shrugs and studies Santana, he needed to keep his eyes on her face, because that neckline was inviting him to stare openly. He knew Santana well enough to know that she wanted him to do it so she could tease him mercilessly.

"Speaking of our children, Max isn't exactly pleased with these turn of events."

"He's not?" Charlie frowns, then furrows his brow. "Wait. Does he know?"

"No, I mean he doesn't know about _us_ , but he knows I'm on a date with some putz?"

"Oh. So I'm a putz now?" Charlie leans back in his chair. He's not sure if he's relieved that Max is thwarting Santana's dating life or worried that it's putting more pressure on the both of them.

Santana holds up her hands defensively. "I didn't say it."

Charlie shakes his head and clears his throat. "You didn't have to. Remember, I know you."

"Maybe I've changed?" She teases.

But the joke falls flat and Charlie tries not to grimace. Maybe she _had_ changed, but the truth was he had too. He wasn't the same guy she divorced and he _definitely_ wasn't the same guy that had cheated on her. He gulps and clears his throat. "Right. Well, I asked you here for a reason. I wanted to talk business—"

"Only business?" Santana reaches out and covers his hand with her own. She can tell he's nervous and she doesn't want this to turn badly. She _missed_ him and even if this was all they could ever be, she needed him to be a part of her life. The hard part, was getting her brain and her heart to agree.

"Maybe?"

"You didn't have to try to trick me to come. I am glad to spend the night with you—" Her cheeks flush as his eyes go wide and she realizes how that sounds. "I mean. I _know_ , not like that. Just—"

"Relax, I get it."

"I'm glad to have _dinner_ with you." She corrects. She doesn't want to push him for sex, especially since neither of them are sure where this whole thing is going to lead.

"Awesome." Charlie grins. "But I did have something I wanted to talk to you about." Charlie turns his hand over to squeeze Santana's supportively. He takes a deep breath, "You know how I've been debating which company to go with for my shoe deal?"

Santana made a face, "Charlie, the only thing that I agreed with your father on was that if you were going to do this, then it _had_ to be Nike. Under Armor may have been kind enough to sign you when your name was in the gutter, but it was a smart business move on their part. You were the MVP, you were selected for the All-Star game by the fans, by a landslide and at the time you had a ring, and this summer you'll get your first Olympic Gold Medal. They needed you far more than you needed them."

Charlie sighs, "I know, that's what Sue said."

Santana nods, of course that's what Sue said. She didn't doubt it. Sure Adidas and Reebok were excellent alternatives, but no one did it quite like Nike did it. It wasn't as if Charlie hadn't signed with Nike before, but it had never been for his own shoe line. "This is business Charlie, you need to keep being a bit selfish and you need to think about your image."

"Nike finally came to the table, it's—well it's a lot of money. A _lot_ of money and they want to get my shoe ready for All-Star weekend. They even have mock-ups. But—"

"But?" Santana presses.

"They're _ugly_. I don't want my shoes to be _trash_. I want my shoes to be part of the insane resale value. I want people to wait in line to get their hands on my stupid shoes. I want people to look for them and want them. I want Max to go nuts for them and for Bela to tell me that they don't look horrible, while secretly wanting to get the female version."

Santana snorted at that, "That's a very _tall_ order, the Bela bit. I honestly have no idea where she gets it from."

"Being a contrarian just to appear cool and hip?" Charlie questions. "That's _all_ you. Do you _remember_ high-school?"

Santana scowled at him, choosing not to give him the win for that one. "You want me to help you design your line of shoes?"

"Yes. You had a successful fashion line, you'll know how to _not_ make it look like trash. I mean, there's a contract for you at Nike if you want to take it. There are a lot of zeros."

Santana raised a brow, "You got me a job?"

"I know you have one, but I didn't think this job would interfere with your current one, it would be something you could do during the off-season. I know you were thinking of doing that reality show where you help people redesign homes for their heroes but—the shoes were _trash_."

Santana bites her lip, the extra cash could come in handy and it would give her more financial stability. Most of the money that Charlie was required to pay went into a trust for the kids, they were basically surviving off her paychecks and her finances were stretched rather thin. "Have them call my people," Santana says after a moment. She couldn't turn it down, even though it irked her to some degree that Charlie had gotten her the job.

"You're upset—"

"I've been doing well on my own Charlie. I have, but it seems that no matter what I do that I'm tied to you. My job opportunities and everything that I had going dried up the moment the divorce papers were signed. My fashion line, everything just evaporated. I know you probably had nothing to do with it and I figured I'd lose _some_ of the opportunities. We were a package deal in a lot of cases, but all of them?" Santana narrowed her eyes at him. "You didn't—"

"No. I didn't. You had the kids and I wanted to see them pissing you off was _not_ in the cards. You were already taking them to Ohio."

"And if you had pressed it in court, you know you could have made me stay," Santana points out. She had practically kidnapped her own children, and there would have been _no_ judge in LA who would have sided with her. Not with the season that Charlie had. "Why didn't you?"

"I didn't want to put you or the kids through that. I didn't even want to go through a bitter custody battle, I figured if I was going to have a chance at all to earn your forgiveness, taking your kids away from you and putting you through a public and bitter custody battle was _not_ the way to go about it."

Santana was quiet for a moment, she loathed to admit it but he was right. They wouldn't even be here right now if Charlie had decided to make a move for the kids. He would have won, depending on whether the judge was a fan of his or not. He couldn't even take care of the kid's full time and there was no way that she was going to just give CJ to him. "Well, I'm glad you didn't," she says after a pregnant pause.

"I can check to see if my father had something to do with it," Charlie offers.

"No need, he probably did. I don't want to drag that man back into our lives." Santana responds.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let him anywhere near this family. He knows better and he _knows_ he's not allowed near the children. The kids don't even like him anyway, so you can tell your dad and mom that they won the best grandparent award."

"It was never really a contest," Santana grins.

"It really wasn't my parents are _terrible_."

Santana doesn't say anything right away he was right, Judy and Russell were terrible people. While Judy wasn't nearly as bad as Russell was, when Russell was around it brought out the worst in her. Probably the result of years of verbal and quite possible physical abuse. Russell was a bully but he had done one good thing, well three. "You didn't turn out to be a terrible person. Neither did Brittany or Quinn—well Quinn's a bitch and Brittany is a bit of a space case, and you have your own issues but all in all you aren't terrible people."

"That wasn't our parents. It was never our parents it probably had a lot more to do with you Santana, and your parents and everyone else. Coach Bieste, everyone who made sure we didn't end up Lima Losers. I mean it was a close call with Quinn remember when she joined the Skanks?"

"The god-awful pink hair? Don't remind me," Santana winced. "She looked _terrible_." She laughs at the memory. Charlie had needed to hold her back and keep her from kidnapping Quinn and making sure she went back to looking like a productive member of society.


	58. Chapter 58

Bela stared at her father as discreetly as she could as she worked on her homework quietly. He seemed _happy_ , which was odd because he had been highly irritable when her mother had begun to date Sebastian. What made it even worse was that her mother was _happy_ too, she had been after she had come back from the date. It was infuriating to think that her parents _thought_ that she was an idiot.

But here was her _father_ sitting on the couch blowing bubbles for CJ who looked to be having the _time_ of his short life. "Dad?"

"Yep?" Charlie says immediately going back to blowing bubbles. CJ got upset when he stopped.

"What's going on between you and mom? Aren't you mad that she's seeing someone else?" Bela questioned, narrowing her eyes at him. "Don't try and deny it, I know that Max told you about Mom's date."

Charlie makes a face, "Well it's just a date right? That doesn't mean that she's going to marry him—" he frowns at this and turns to Bela. "Why? What have you heard?"

"Nothing," Bela replies rolling her eyes. Her dad was terrible with this, he sounded rather eager. If her parents weren't going to be open and honest she wasn't going to help him.

" _Daddy_! Bubbles!" CJ demands smacking his hand against the coffee table. Almost immediately his eyes well up with tears and he sniffles.

"Careful CJ! You don't want to get an owchie," Charlie said taking his hand and gently blowing on it. He lets CJ cling to him and rubs his back. "So, I'm aware that this is terrible parenting and neither of you can tell your mom—but where is Max again?"

"Tryouts remember?" Bela reminds him. "God, you're getting old dad. Tina told you when she dropped us off, remember."

"Basketball season doesn't start until October, Max told me that," Charlie points out. "It's early September—"

"Football." Bela supplied. "But you didn't hear it from me, Max wanted to surprise you."

Charlie violently twitched, "He's _seven_. Who the hell signed the permission slip for football?"

"It's _touch_ football, so mom did," Bela responds watching her dad deflate a bit. "What you're not going to get upset that mom made such a huge decision and didn't inform you?"

"It's touch football the worse that can happen is he loses a tooth or scrapes his knee, and once he realizes how silly football is then he'll quit. Then he can focus on the other sports. Hell, if he wants to try other sports that's fine, he can sign up for hockey."

"He can't skate."

"He can learn." Charlie grins and looks at his daughter, "Just think about the legacy that we could have. The Fabray line in every single major sport? Winning championships? A dynasty—"

"This is why mom doesn't tell you anything, you get all weird about dynasty's and stuff." Bella grumbles and shakes her head.

"Think about it."

"No."

"What about you CJ? Do you want to become my favorite and pick up a sport?" Charlie nuzzles him, sighing when CJ squirms away.

"No!"

Charlie sighs, "Fine, fine. I'll just keep my super special news to myself."

This seemed to pique Bela's interest for a moment, "What special news?"

Charlie shook his head and zipped up his lips and continued to blow bubbles for his son.

" _Dad_. If this is about you and mom getting back together, it's sort of obvious," Bela smirks proudly.

"It has to do with your mom, but it's not that. I'll just have to tell Max; he'll probably love it more." Charlie sniffs.

Bela narrowed her eyes, and immediately pulled herself off the chair so she could approach her dad, "CJ," Bela demands causing her younger brother to turn to her and begin to walk towards her.

"Ela!"

"Get him." Bela insists pointing at her dad. She groans when CJ latches onto her legs. "You're supposed to attack."

"Your brother's not a dog Bela," Charlie reminds her, a smirk on his face. "He's a _boy_."

Bela shoots her father a withering look and pulls her brother up holding him as he hugs her tightly. "I love you too, even though you're supposed to tackle dad and make him tell us his secret." She would just have to wait till Max finally showed up. Until then, "By the way dad, I need some money—"

"No."

"You haven't even heard for what!"

"I'm broke." Charlie insists.

"You're a _millionaire_!"

"Do you have any idea how many athletes go broke? Ask your mother for cash. I don't give you guys anything because you don't do chores around here. Look at this place it's a mess."

Bela twitched, "Fine if I clean up can I get some money?"

"Sure, I'll pay you the minimum wage in Ohio, which is like eight bucks," Charlie sniffed. "When I was your age—"

Bela sighed loudly deciding that if her father was going to be like this then she'd simply have to go to plan B. "Fine, I was going to ask you for money so I could pay for my own things when we go on our field trip, like for lunch and stuff, but I have plenty of guys who—"

"How much do you need?" Charlie demands pulling out his wallet and looking at the hundred dollar bills.

Her father was incredibly predictable, "I'm not sure, lunch maybe a souvenir or two—" She grins and takes the three hundred dollars that her father is holding out. "Thanks dad you're the best."

Charlie nods, "No boys."

"Yeah, no boys." Bela echoes stuffing the money into her pocket turning to the door when there's a loud knock. "That's probably Max."

CJ rouses from where he was drooling on Bela's shoulder. "Ax!"

Charlie nods and heads towards the door, pulling the door open, and noting the huge grin on his son's face. "Hey—"

"I _made the team!_ " Max said immediately latching on.

Charlie forced a smile onto his face. "That's _great_ Max."

"Yeah, I'm the—uh—" he looks at Tina.

"Wide receiver," Tina reminded him.

"Right, that! Isn't that awesome dad?"

Charlie's fake smile got bigger. "Sure is, I'm proud of you Maximus."

Max grins and sticks out his tongue at Bela, "I told you I could do it!"

"Whatever, now that you're here dad can finally tell us his secret," Bela said dismissively. "You said when Max was here you'd tell us so _spill_."

"A secret?" Max turns to his father. "What is it?"

"Well, your mom and me—"

"Are DATING?" Max interrupts.

"Shut up and let him finish," Bela groans.

"Bela—"

"What about the Putz—"

"Well—"

"Max! Let dad finish, he already said he wasn't dating mom!" Bela grumbles and turns to her father.

"Oh, then I don't really care," Max informs him bluntly and heads towards the fridge. HIs enthusiasm dying quickly on the subject.

Charlie's jaw dropped, and even Tina snorted at his reaction. "Well, have fun Mr. Fabray," Tina informed him and shook her head as she closed the door.

"How can you not care?"

"You're supposed to be making mom fall in love with you, and winning another championship. Those are your two jobs," Max informs him sagely.

"Fine, you don't get the very first street version of the Fabray Ones." Charlie sniffed indignantly, his kids were _horrible little monsters_. He had no idea why he had thought that it was a good idea to have any, it was probably Santana's fault.

Max paused and nearly dropped his Gatorade bottle. "Wait. You have your own shoe line?"

"And mom's designing it?" Bela surmises, no wonder her dad was happy. This was a _huge_ deal, for someone like him. And it meant that her parents were finally working together and probably close together, it was disgusting to think about but that meant that they could finally work on repairing their relationship.

"Yes."

"I take it back! That's awesome!"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "CJ will get to wear the very first pair then, since you guys don't care about me." He sniffs and holds his arms out. "You love me don't you CJ?"

CJ turned to his father and gave him a look that was one that he had seen on Santana's face a million times. "No. I hungy daddy!"

Charlie's face went red when the rest of his children burst out into laughter at CJ's deadpan nature. He really did have the worst kid in the world. "I'm going to go on strike," he muttered.

"Daddy! I hungy!" CJ yells holding his hands out for his dad.

Charlie groans and takes his son patting his son on his head. "Fine, but we're eating healthy food tonight."

"Aw man!" Max groans.


	59. Chapter 59

"There are a multitude of reasons that people cheat on their significant other. Sometimes it's merely a drunken mistake, other times they get a thrill out of it, some cheat simply because they are unhappy and someone else is offering what they _think_ you need." Emma said looking between Charlie and Santana. Charlie looked the most uncomfortable with this whole conversation and Santana didn't seem to _want_ to look at him. "I know that this topic is _difficult_ , I understand that however it's a topic that I believe that you need to have a frank conversation on. Charlie—do you want to explain to me why you did what you did?"

Charlie shrunk down in his seat, it felt like he was being called out in class when he hadn't done his homework because Santana had kept him up all night. How she had managed to get all her work done had eluded him for years. "Uh—I mean—"

Santana turned to look at him, this whole thing was feeling like a waste of time. Sure it was _nice_ that he was going through this but that didn't mean that everything between them was okay. "I already know why he did it. Knowing makes it worse. Because he's _very_ good at pretending that everything is okay. He's very good at pretending that we're _happy_. I never once suspected it, I mean some women say they suspect it, but with his schedule and the fact that he's gone sometimes for days at a time, because of work. I mean he was never any good with women and prior to this he had never looked at another woman—hell I'm not even sure he watches porn."

"Santana!"

"What? Do you?" Santana asks turning to look at him raising a brow.

Charlie opened his mouth and then closed it, "That's a _trap_. I know that much," he says finally.

"Apparently he does," Santana rolls her eyes. She didn't personally care if he did or not, hell she'd watch it with him if they didn't have kids that didn't believe in knocking and waiting for an answer. "I—"

"We weren't happy. You're rewriting history, after we got married and after Bela was born sure we were happy for about a month, but then we weren't. We argued, like actually argued over everything. Bela was colicky, and it was stressful and we were out in LA by ourselves, in this house that really wasn't our own. We didn't do date nights, we didn't do anything that wasn't about basketball, your schoolwork, or Bela. We weren't having sex. We were barely talking to each other and I was pulling extra shifts with Bela whenever I was home, even though my body felt like it was breaking down," Charlie pointed out. "We weren't happy; I wasn't happy—we weren't a _team_ anymore. We weren't—"

"So you went looking for someone else to be on your team? God do you even _hear_ yourself?" Santana snaps at him.

"That's not what I said—" Charlie sighed and rubbed his temples. "That's not what I said. I said _we_ weren't a team anymore. The first time it happened, it just—she was nice to me and there was a bit of booze, and she listened. I don't know, I mean I didn't even think anything of it at first or that I was doing anything wrong, I mean for my entire adolescence and adult life you and Quinn and Brittany have been making fun of me for not being able to talk or deal with other women. I didn't think she wanted in my pants, but she did and I just—we had sex. It only happened once with her—but—it only happened once with every last one of them."

Santana bristled and swallowed, Charlie had always been _charming_ , he didn't quite know that back then but she had used her popularity to keep every girl away from him growing up. It wasn't that they didn't want to talk to Charlie, sure he was awkward but he was a star basketball player, and he was _hers_. No girl was stupid enough to encroach on her territory, and she had made sure of that. "And that was it you just thought—"

"What I thought was that you were going to castrate me, because you know when I do anything bad—you're worse than my _mother_ sometimes. Actually no, my mom didn't give a shit, but you knew when I felt guilty about anything and worse you knew what I was guilty off. I used Bela as a human shield for _days_. Waiting for you to realize—but you never did. You _never_ noticed, hell I flinched every time I came near you because I thought you could smell it on me for weeks." Charlie frowned. "You didn't notice. It didn't happen again for another few months, this time it was just the sex. I had talked to my dad about it and he had given me some condoms and informed me to not turn it into an affair. That if I was going to fuck other women that I needed to be discrete about it."

"Why the hell didn't you just divorce me then? I mean if I didn't notice that my _husband_ who I trusted was cheating on me?" Santana snaps at him. "I mean if you didn't have the balls to tell me then you should have at least divorced me instead of humiliating me like that."

"I was going too, or at least I was thinking about it," Charlie responds. "It was towards the end of my third season, you were just about done school and Bela was getting into _everything_. I didn't know how you would take it, I did know you'd get Bela—and I was debating—what I should do, when you decided to use me as a warm body to help you digest your food. You remember the day Max was probably conceived. I think that was it for me, and I sort of talked to my dad about it and a few of the guys who had been divorced and just as I was about to pull that trigger, you tell me that you're late and then the next thing I know you were pregnant. I didn't marry you because you were pregnant. I stayed because you were."

"Isn't that just great." Santana scoffs. It hurts to think that he was miserable enough to cheat. But to hear that he stayed with her out of some weird sense of obligation _hurt_. It hurt more than anything else. "So why are we even here? You wanted to divorce me—"

"And then I didn't. You finally needed me as more than just a fun rolls in the sack. We became a team again and I stopped cheating on you. I was finally comfortable in my own skin again."

"But what about what _I_ needed?" Santana challenged. "That's great for you. You finally got comfortable in your own skin. Congratulations. But I'm not the only one who is re-writing our history."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You felt like you were breaking down because you pulled _extra shifts_ with Bela whenever you were home?" She shakes her head, in disbelief. "I was with her _all the time_. I had _every_ shift. I don't think I slept for more than a few hours a week."

"Then why didn't you _talk_ to me?"

Santana clenches her jaw and folds her arms over her chest. "Because I didn't want to."

Emma clears her throat, trying to reset the dialogue. "Why don't you share how _you_ felt during that time. It sounds like the birth of your daughter was a tough time for both of you."

"She was sick and colicky and cried all the time." Santana admits, begrudgingly. "I just never felt like I was doing it right. Or that I was good enough. It was hard and Charlie helped when he could but he was still _gone_ more than he was there. So I was stuck, alone with a baby that depended on me for everything and I just felt numb. It was like I couldn't feel _anything_."

"It's not uncommon for women to suffer from postpartum depression, especially considering that it was already a difficult time."

Santana picks at her cuticles, reluctantly admitting, "Charlie's sisters had to come over and finally force me to talk to my doctor. They stayed for the entire week that Charlie was on a road trip."

"When was that? How come I didn't know about it?"

"I didn't _want_ you to know. You already had enough on your plate. But I _thought_ it was the right thing to do." Santana retorts.

Charlie shifted in his chair so he could look at her, "You should have told me."

"Why? What good would it have done?"

"We were supposed to be a team—"

"You were fucking other people!"

"This was before I was fucking other people wasn't it? I wanted you to talk to me and you didn't. You didn't have to be 'strong' in front of me all the time. You didn't. I came to you and I complained and I whined because that's what we're supposed to hold each other up and you didn't let me help you up. What did you think was going to happen?"

"That you were going to _leave_. I thought you were going to leave. I was there worrying about whether Bela was yours or not, and she's been fucking difficult. She's still difficult and I thought that you were going to leave if I wasn't me. If I wasn't this person that you thought, I was. I was half-right you cheated instead. Which is _perfect._ All this proves is that— _"_

"This doesn't prove your point Santana. You set up the conditions and I failed them. But the game was rigged against me to begin with."

"Spare me, I didn't _force_ you to sleep with anyone. I didn't hold a gun to your head and force you to put your dick in other women. _You did that._ "

"A breakdown of communication isn't helpful and it seems that both of you acknowledge that things weren't perfect and there were clear signs that the both of you ignored that things weren't where they should be. From what was said Charlie's infidelity didn't come from unhealthy emotions, he wasn't attempting to hurt you personally he was just seeking something that you weren't giving him." Emma holds up her hand before Santana can jump down her throat. "I'm not blaming you Santana, quite the contrary, many women feel like they _have_ to be perfect and many hide their depression, it all ends with Charlie wasn't there for you either—"

"And I didn't hop into bed with someone else," Santana mutters.

"No you didn't, but do you believe him now when he says that it ended?" Emma presses.

Santana glanced over at Charlie, as much as she loathed it things had been good since Max's birth. Charlie had been attentive, and loving and he had been a good father to the kids, he had been an even better husband during those times. "Yeah. If he said he stopped, then I believe him."

"But you don't trust me."

"I believe you when you said you ended it. But I was there when you chose your father over our family. So as much as I want to trust you, I don't. Not yet. But I want to."

Emma nods, "Trust is a tricky thing. Once lost, it can be hard to rebuild. Rebuilding takes time and effort. Is that something you are both willing to do?"

Santana nods and Charlie squeezes her hand in support, "Yeah. I definitely am."

"Good. Intimacy, at whatever level the pair of you ultimately decide to share, is completely reliant on open and honest communication. It seems that is something you have both struggled with in the past."

Charlie nods, only half-listening so that he can answer appropriately as Emma and Santana continue to talk. He hadn't really thought about it like that before. When things were _really_ good between them, he still had this secret hanging over his head and waiting to fall at any moment. Sure, Santana had made mistakes too, but Charlie felt like his overpowered hers to such a degree that there wasn't really a comparison. He was going to have to try harder, even if it meant talking about things he would rather ignore.

He was serious about doing whatever it took to get Santana to trust him again. They needed to start over together and he had a couple ideas how he could make that happen.

Emma glances at the time and puts down her pen. "I know you both wanted to end on the hour so you had plenty of time to get out of here before my next appointment. I really believe that if you two are willing to work at it, you will be able to overcome some of the traps and pitfalls you have fallen into before. This next week, think of ways that you can express your emotions even if they are uncomfortable. Does that work for everyone?"

"Yeah, thanks." Charlie stands, holding out his hand to help Santana up off the couch. He lets her lead the way out of the office, but as soon as they are away from Emma's prying eyes, he pulls her into a tight hug.

She resists at first, but eventually hugs him back before pulling away. He has always given really great hugs. "What was that for?"

"Because I just want to make sure you know how much I still love you. I was an idiot before and that was rough. But I never want you to go for another minute wondering how I feel about you."

She rolls her eyes, but can't help the small smile from escaping. "You're such a dork."

He shrugs, grinning broadly. "Maybe so."


	60. Chapter 60

Santana blows out her breath and relaxes in the box office at the arena. She should be used to this, after all, family outings to Charlie's games had been the routine all throughout their marriage. Since their divorce, she has tried to avoid it, but she can't help but feel like the entire experience is foreign and all too familiar at the same time. Max personally preferred to be at courtside, where he was sure that his dad could hear him yell, but CJ could run around up here and sleep if he wanted. Like Bela, he wasn't particularly interested in watching his dad play basketball unless Max was yelling about it.

"Why couldn't we be at court side, it's the first game we're _always_ courtside," Max grumbled as he began to root through the gift bags. "I don't want another foam finger and I can get dad to sign my jersey right now," Max sighed.

"Stop complaining, this is the VIP experience, and more importantly CJ can't run onto the court again. Dad doesn't want to pay twenty-five thousand dollars, because CJ wants him to feed him." Bela responded as she took a selfie. The kids at school would be so jealous.

Santana rolled her eyes and looked at her children, "Look Max, you might like getting the players sweat on you as they run buy or trying to listen to the coaches but your dad wanted to do something special for us, and he's actually paying for this suite for the entire season for us. You can bring a friend and have little parties here, it might not be courtside but it's still special and you should still thank your father."

Max puffed out his cheek but nodded and sunk back in his chair, watching as CJ banged his cars together completely oblivious to the game that was about to start. The exciting part had already happened, his dad had a brand new ring to show off. He couldn't wait till he got to put it on his finger before his dad locked it away.

Santana nudged CJ and pointed to the jumbo Tron, "Daddy's about to play CJ, do you want to be like daddy?"

"No!" CJ laughed at his own joke but he focused on the screen in front of him.

"Who's that," Santana asked pulling him onto her lap, "Is that daddy? Is daddy on TV?"

"DADDY! I see you!" CJ yelled loudly, and waved.

Bela groaned and crossed her legs, "Do you think if he makes it to the finals I can invite some friends here?"

"Me too!" Max said immediately.

"The season just begun, let's watch your father win and then we'll talk about it with him when he comes to see us after the game alright?" Santana shakes her head.

"Fine." Max huffs, focusing back on game. It was just the first few minutes of the first quarter but he didn't want to miss anything.

Santana's attention drifts, neither team is playing particularly well and they aren't even close to the postseason. She knew this song and dance, Charlie would do something flashy to get the guys blood running, maybe a fast break, or a dunk or perhaps even an—

"ANKLE BREAK!" Max shouted jumping up on his seat and waving his hands. "Did you see that?"

Bela groaned and shook her head, "Could you be any more embarrassing?"

But Santana furrows her brow when Charlie seems to fall to the floor and doesn't get back up. He does have the sense of mind to pass the ball toward Mike who cuts in hard to the basket with an amazing play. The officials finally seem to catch up with what Santana is already fearing and they whistle to stop the clock.

Immediately trainers rush onto the court where Charlie is doubled over clutching his ankle, she was absolutely certain that he was using a few choice words under his breath. She glances over at Max who had stopped hopping on the couch and was watching with shock on his face.

"Well, let's go see your dad you know how he gets with hospitals, he's _probably_ fine. But if it is a serious injury don't say the "O" word." Santana says quickly before Max can start to panic, he truly looked as if he was going to burst into tears at any moment.

"Would he be out the whole season?" Max demands.

"I don't know." Santana admits gently. "But your father has always been a quick heal—even if he is a terrible patient and a grouchy old man."

"Right and he's terrible at taking care of himself," Bela reminded her mother.

Santana grimaced, Charlie was horrible at taking care of himself, and it generally bordered on the pathetic at times. "Well, I'm not babysitting your father alone," she informs them. "And he refuses to sleep in my guest room—"

"So we'll stay at dad's!" Max insists.

" _Or_ , I'll replace the mattress," Santana retorts. There was no way that she was going to sleep in the same bed as Charlie. Things would _probably_ happen, and they were working on their relationship. She wasn't going to put how far they had come in jeopardy.

~O~

After being poked and prodded and scanned by as many medical professionals as Charlie had ever seen, the general consensus was that his ankle was fractured, but not so badly that he would never be able to recover. A cast, rehab, and a few months off seemed to be the general agreement and after a few hours he let Santana wheel him out of the back entrance of the hospital to avoid the prying eyes of the press.

"Where're the kids?" He asks, only then realizing that they were alone.

"I had Tina come pick them up when you were waiting for the MRI. Max is worried sick, Bela is just chomping at the bits to call you an old man and CJ probably wants to crawl all over you and smack your leg."

"I see—why did we have kids?" Charlie grumbled.

Santana rolled her eyes, he was doing his best to be the grumpy old man. "What did Sue say?"

"She'll handle it, and once the cast comes off we're going to do a web series to show me getting back into shape. Or something, I don't know I stopped paying attention. My fucking ankle is the size of a—I dunno but it's fucking huge!"

"Stop whining, you'll be fine you big baby," Santana rolled her eyes, but placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"Yeah when you take me home, and I get some drugs into me. See this is why I told Sue I didn't want the surgery, my body is breaking down on me! I _told you_."

"Stop whining or I'm going to drop you off at your apartment instead of taking you to see your kids."

Charlie paused for a moment and then leaned back in his chair, "How about we go to my apartment anyway and leave the kids with Tina—" he sighs when he gets swatted by Santana. "What? Bela is going to try and get money out of me!"

"Aren't you the one that gave her money a few weeks ago so she wouldn't talk to boys? You're such a sap, that you fell for it."

"It's called _parenting_." Charlie huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He hated being out of commission like this, it made him feel weak and useless but even more he knew his daughter was too smart to pass up the chance to use it for her advantage. "Our kids are the worst."

"They really are," Santana agreed with him. There really was no point in denying it. "You spoil them you know."

Charlie frowned and glanced at Santana's hand which was still on his shoulder. "I feel bad, I'm not around you know for all the important things. Their first word, their first step, none of that shit. So making them happy and seeing a smile on their face makes me feel better. It makes them feel better, and I want them to have all the shit I never did."

Santana didn't say anything to that, the thing Charlie had wanted most was his dad to pay attention to him. Unlike Russell however, Charlie was as present in his children's lives as he possibly could be. "Well, since you're out of commission for six to twelve weeks, you can spend as much time with the kids as possible until they are begging for you to go back on the road."

Charlie blinked and looked up at Santana, "I already broke my ankle, why do you insist on torturing me?"

"Keep complaining and you aren't going to sleep in my bed tonight," Santana informed him, smirking when he turned to look at her his eyes wide. "I'm not going to live in your apartment, and the kids want to take care of you. I imagine it will be absolutely terrifying but they want to do it. So let's see what happens alright?"

Charlie huffed before a smile crossed his features and he leaned his head back so he could look at Santana for a moment, she had been worried, and she had come to make sure that he had the best care in the damn hospital. She was a force to be reckoned with and he wouldn't have it any other way. He reaches up to place his hand on hers. "Thank you. For being here."

Santana flicks her eyes towards him, she wants to lie and inform him she did it for the kids and that she had known that he would be fine, but instead she merely nods. "Max thinks it's because we didn't follow protocol, we're supposed to be courtside. I blame you for his superstitious nonsense."

"You're the one with the third eye," Charlie grumbles as they reach the car and he shifts his crutches which are on his lap so he can get into the car. "But he's probably right, I just wanted to do something special for you guys and keep CJ away from the court in case he gets bored."

Santana rolls her eyes and immediately moves so she can help him, despite his status as an NBA superstar, he was not the most graceful person. "Careful Charlie, I know we're at a hospital but let's not break anything else while we're here."


	61. Chapter 61

Santana poked her head out of her ensuite bathroom from where she was brushing her teeth, her eyes flicking across the bedroom for a moment before she found what didn't belong in her room—well there were two things that didn't quite belong. Charlie who was currently sprawled out with his leg on a few pillows, on her bed, and her youngest son who was making a beeline for his father. "CJ!" She hissed with enough force to get her son to stop in his tracks and turn to look at her. She raises an eyebrow at him and crosses her arms and he rewards her with a broad confident grin.

"Story, I want daddy to read story," CJ insists showing his mom the book that he had in his hand.

"I already read you a story," Santana reminded him. She was sure she had also put him in bed and gone through their routine. Charlie, she imagined, had none when it came to her youngest. "Besides, your daddy is sleeping—" Santana immediately tried to intercept CJ when he continued to make a beeline for his father again. But he was far closer and he was a speedy little devil when he wanted to be.

"Daddy! Story, read me _story_!" CJ yelled as he smacked Charlie with his book.

Charlie's eyes flicked open and he frowns at his son. "No." CJ had ignored him for the past two days except when he wanted something and he didn't appreciate being awoken to being hit by a book. "No CJ, no story. You didn't say please, and you _hit_ me. I told you no hitting."

CJ stared at Charlie for a long moment, and held up his book again. "Daddy, _story_."

"No."

Santana shifted so she could lean against her dresser and watch the exchange, CJ was a terror, a lazy terror, but a terror nonetheless. Sure she could put him in timeout but nothing really seemed to stick and when he didn't get his way, he would throw a tantrum. Sure enough, CJ's eyes began to water and his lip quivered and he immediately began to yell and attempt to hit Charlie with the book in his hand.

"Story! Story! I want a story!" He screamed.

Santana winced and moved to get CJ away from Charlie who hissed as he swung his feet off the bed and sat up. "Charlie, I'll handle it—" She winced when Charlie gently pried the book away from CJ and picked him up, holding him a distance away from him as CJ kicked and screamed and tried to writhe out of his father's hands. But Charlie had a good grip on CJ.

Charlie waited staring at CJ, simply holding him. He could do this all night if he needed to, but he needed to put an end to this behavior quickly. If only so he could go back to sleep and put his leg up, his ankle was throbbing in the cast. "CJ, I love you but you can't hit anyone. It's bad. If you hit me, then I won't read you a story. If you don't say, please I won't read you a story. Okay?"

"Daddy I want a story!" CJ insisted his nose running as he continued to struggle wanting to get to his book.

Charlie didn't say anything right away and just stared at CJ until he began to calm down, only then pulling his son close to him so he could hug him tightly. CJ hiccupping against his chest as he clung to his shirt and wiped his snotty nose on it. "I know you do, but you have to say please. Daddy, I want a story please, can you say that CJ?"

CJ nodded against his dad's chest.

Charlie rubs CJ's back gently, "Now, are you sorry for hitting me?"

CJ sniffles and nods, "Sorry daddy," he mumbles.

"It's okay, so do you want me to read you a story now?" Charlie offers and he smiles when CJ nods. "Alright, let me get comfortable alright and then I'll read you the story." Charlie glances at Santana and shoots her a look, unsure if he had done the right thing.

Santana could only nod, CJ rarely apologized so it was a start now if they could just get him potty trained, and talking more than everything would be perfect. "Alright CJ, I'm going to help your father lift his leg. That's super important and then you can get in between us and we'll both read you a story how about that?"

"Kay," CJ sniffed and wiped more of his snotty nose on Charlie's shirt.

Santana groaned, she would definitely have to change the sheets tomorrow, but she moves towards the bed and helps Charlie put his leg back up on the pillow, before sliding into the bed beside him, making room so that CJ could be in between them. Of course he had picked up ' _If you give a pig a pancake._ ' It seemed to be his favorite book of all time. She wondered what he'd think if he knew that his favorite food was made from pigs.

Charlie moved the book so CJ could see it. "If you give a pig a pancake—" Charlie began flipping the page and motioning for Santana to take the next line. It was what they had done for both Bela and Max growing up and doing it for CJ felt right.

"She'll want some syrup to go with it," Santana read leaning against Charlie so she could get a better look at the page. She didn't really need to; she knew the damn book by heart. She blinks when Charlie shifts and wraps his arm around her holding her close to him. Whether it was intentional or not it sort of felt right. CJ seemed to be enjoying the reading as he leaned against the both of them and yawned. He'd be out like a light soon.

"You'll give her some of your favorite maple syrup," Charlie continued before pointing to the pig. "What's that CJ?"

"Piggy!"

"And what does a pig say?"

"Oink oink!" CJ clapped and cheered.

Santana tried to keep her face neutral but failed as she leaned in and kissed the top of CJ's head. This was the biggest problem with having Charlie in her space, he was himself. And all it did was make her miss having him around. The two days had been a blessing, Bela was less sarcastic. Max was incredibly enthused, to have his dad around. He had even done his chores without being asked twice. He certainly hadn't whined about it. Sure Charlie was a klutz and a danger to society on crutches, but he was attempting to help out around the house like usual despite only having been injured for two days. Sure he'd be moving into the guest bedroom when the mattress was changed, but until then she'd enjoy feeling him breech the pillow wall that separated them to cuddle her. "Yeah a pig says oink, oink."

She glances at Charlie again, maybe this could be a sort of trial run for him to move back in with them. It would be odd, but the kids loved their father and she missed her kids when they were with their father. She didn't want it to simply go back to business as usual especially with the kids, so it would be something to consider.

~O~

"You moved back in together?" Emma pressed, an incredulous note in her voice. They were making progress but they weren't there yet. At least she didn't believe so. There was still so much left to unpack.

"Temporarily," Charlie insists holding up his hands.

Santana leaned against her side of the couch, "Have you ever seen that really said commercial where there is that old lady that fell and can't get up? That's Charlie. Except knowing him he'd probably break his arm or something in the process of breaking another one of my vases."

"It was an accident! You try using these damn things. Why couldn't I just get a wheelchair to move around the house with? You know one of those motorized ones?" Charlie insists.

"Because the same thing would happen, except the kids will try and race you in CJ's death trap, and more of my expensive shit would be broken," Santana reminds him shaking her head. She was rewarded with an amused smile from Charlie. "You _thought_ about it didn't you!"

"No! I mean yes! I mean come on Santana it would be _fun_!"

"Not in my house it wouldn't," Santana said smacking his arm lightly.

Emma glanced between them for a moment, "Are you two—well that is to say—are you two intimate again?"

Charlie shook his head, "We're not having sex if that's what you're asking."

"We are sharing the same bed but that's only because he won't sleep in the guest room on the mattress, the new one is coming in tomorrow and he'll be moving in there."

"I said I'd sleep on the couch but she always talks about how I ruin her couches," Charlie insists.

"They're expensive. You drool, something that he's genetically passed on to all our children. As for the sleeping arrangements. I make a pillow wall, which he breaches because he's a cuddler."

"I move to the closest source of heat! Sue me," Charlie grunted at her. "She's like a _furnace_ at night, I can't help it—"

Emma held up her hands, they had definitely fallen into old patterns and she doubted it would take long for them to actually start being intimate with one another, even if they were trying their hardest to avoid crossing that line. "Let's talk about your children for a moment, because they are important in any decision that you make. How are they taking it? And what's going to happen when his leg heals and he moves out?"

"The kids adore having him around right now, he helps them with their homework reads over their assignments and feeds them junk food." Santana crosses her arms and glances at him.

"I'm sensing some tension on that," Emma interjects immediately.

"What that he's the fun parent?"

"No, I'm the parent who is not there all the time. I'm the parent that misses their games and practices, the person that shows up is you. The kids talk to you more about things then they do me, the only reason I'm the fun parent is because I'm not around as much as I want to be. I'm betting by the end of the three months they'll want me back on the road. The only reason I'm the fun one is because I come back for a few days and then I'm gone. Sure I come back with toys and shit and all that but that's just because I don't know how to compete with you. Give it time and they're all going to be here in a room just like this talking about how their dad wasn't around."

Santana pauses she had never once considered that he had felt at a loss for what to do with the children. "It comes easily to you—"

"Hardly. I mean you're the one that knows how to keep your temper in check around the kids. Bela, CJ—I mean it takes a bit to get me angry but when it does—I don't know how to handle it. You do. Because you parent them more than I do. You give them structure and then when they're with me that structure goes out the window. Of course they like me more, they get to make a mess and not clean it up. I don't want our kids to hate me."

Santana reaches for his hands, "They don't hate you, I mean give Bela time. She already thinks we're the most embarrassing people on the planet and we ruin her life. But that's normal. She'll come around."

Emma wrote a few things down, "So Charlie doesn't discipline the kids?"

Santana shrugged off the question, "Of course he does, we both do. The kids just don't care when he does it. Though Max occasionally thinks I'm cooler than his dad sometimes."

"Traitor," Charlie mumbled.

Santana gently swats his arm again. "I suppose you're right. The kids are probably going to come to me in their teenage years. Bela talking to me about the boys in her life—" Santana smirks when Charlie looks at her horrified.

"Santana we agreed no boys until she was thirty!"

"No, you said that. I ignored your paranoia about all of this," Santana shook her head.

Emma sighs and holds her hands up, their chemistry was back, it wouldn't be long now. Maybe living together was the right step for them. "And what happens when his leg heals?"

"We'll cross that bridge when the time comes," Santana said glancing at him. She couldn't tell him yet that she was thinking of making it a thing between them. That he could move into the guest room and they could work from there.


	62. Chapter 62

Bela came to a halt, she had been about to head upstairs to her room but the sight of her father sitting on the couch with his leg up a huge bowl of popcorn and pretzels and M&M's and whatever other candy he had found around the house. "Should you be eating that?"

"What are you my nutritionist?" Charlie asked as he sat up a bit and flashed an amused smile at his daughter. "It's Trail Mix, wants some?"

Bela hesitated for a moment before deciding to head into the living room and flop down on the couch beside her dad and reaches for the bowl. "If mom finds any popcorn in her couches she's going to kill you."

"I plan to blame it on CJ so it's completely okay," Charlie shrugged.

Bela rolled her eyes, "And people say that I get it from _mom_."

"You do get it from your mom, if your mother had siblings I'm sure she'd blame them for stuff as well to get herself out of trouble," Charlie shook his head. "I have _two_ sisters; do you know how much trouble I got in for stuff that wasn't even my fault?"

"It does seem that Aunt Brittany would blame you for everything," Bela nods taking another handful of her father's 'trail-mix'. She flicks her attention to the television and is mildly surprised to see her father watching the news. He _never_ watched the news, he watched ESPN and cartoons, and maybe some stuff with his mom but never the news. "Why are you watching this?"

"Your mom put the remote out of reach," Charlie motioned to the remote that was all the way across the room. "Something about how I needed to learn about what's going on in the world. Or whatever, I don't know it's depressing."

Bela frowned slightly, "I know _mom_ didn't make you this—she's been making you keep to your diet, and Tina's not here—"

"I am capable of making myself trail mix but I forgot to grab the remote and now I'm too lazy to get up and go and grab the remote. I'm _injured_ I'm supposed to be resting!" He whines and flops back on his seat. He glances at his daughter and smiles. "Since you're here—"

Bela shook her head, "Sure I'll get you the remote if you're honest with me."

"I'm always honest with you," Charlie promises. "What do you want to know."

"Are you and mom back together again?"

"No." Charlie said with a shrug. He was being honest even if he was omitting the fact that they were working on their relationship. He couldn't just kiss Santana and they weren't sleeping together. Sure they were currently sharing the same space, but if Santana wanted she could go out and date other people.

"You were sleeping in her bed _last week_. I'm not stupid dad!" Bela huffed.

"I know you aren't but we aren't dating. I mean your mother built a pillow fort to keep me away from her when we shared a bed. So you know—you aren't getting another brother any time soon."

Bela made a face, "Gross, I didn't need that much detail. Also I don't need another boy in the house, if you're going to do it make sure it's a sister. But you and mom are so _weirdly_ happy together all the time, why don't you just ask her out or _something_. Then you can move back home with us, and we can be a family again."

Charlie shifts on the couch and wraps an arm around his daughter, "Even if I go back to my apartment downtown, I'm still going to try and do my best to be here more often. I think your mom is warming up to that idea, you know me being here till bedtime before heading back. Spending as much time here as possible before going back to my apartment. I miss spending time with you kids. I miss spending time with your mom and being on her team. You know she supported me through all the tough times. The injuries like now, the times when I was playing like trash. Your mom supported me and she lifted me up and I couldn't do the same for her. It's why we divorced, not because I cheated, I mean that was a part of it but because I didn't choose your mother like she had chosen me. So my job if I want to be with your mom again is to prove to her I will _always_ be on her team, that I'll lift her up like she did for me."

"And prove that you won't cheat on her again," Bela reminds him.

"Well, that too," Charlie admits. "But I'm not going to cheat on your mom again. I'm not going to hurt her again."

"It's not just _mom_ you hurt," Bela pointed out. "You hurt Max, you hurt CJ and you hurt me— I mean CJ probably has no idea of what's going on, other than he likes to drool and chew everything. But still—it sucks that you don't show up for holidays anymore, I mean yeah we get more presents, but you and mom fighting _sucks_."

Charlie winced and rubbed Bela's shoulders, "You're right. I'm sorry that I hurt the three of you, I never wanted that. I'm going to try and be here for the holidays. You three kids are important to me and I really need to make sure that you become productive members of society."

Bela laughed and hugged her dad. "Are you still trying to keep your promise?"

"To win your mom back and be a family? Yeah. Always. I don't think I'll ever stop."

"That doesn't mean less presents by the way—"

"Yes it does, you know your mom doesn't like it when I spoil you."

Bela huffed, well that had been worth a try. "Well then can I have some more money I need it for—"

"Ask your mother. I'm living in her guest room, what makes you think that I have any money on me?"

"Yes, of course why wouldn't I ask my NBA all-star father for a bit more in allowance?"

"Bela you live in _Ohio_ , this isn't LA. It's too cold to dress like you live in LA. You don't see me dressing like I still live in LA do you?"

"You're a _boy_ , of course it doesn't matter. And don't think I haven't noticed that you're wearing the shorts you wore yesterday."

"I have an injury so unless you want to be the one that helps me in the morning get dressed—"

"I don't." Bela said flatly. "Ask Max or CJ or better yet mom. By the way mom doesn't like it when you're chunky. So really I should take this away from you to help you." Bela smirked as she reached for the bowl.

"Bela. I love you. I will ground you if take this away from me," Charlie insisted but that didn't stop his daughter from swiping his bowl and leaving him without his snack food.

"I'm _helping_ you. You want to get back to playing basketball, you need to eat the healthy stuff on your diet. It'll help you heal better, plus you won't have to really get back into basketball shape. And if you get your summer gut as you like to call it mom will totally stop checking you out."

"Your mom _likes_ the summer gut." Charlie insists frowning when Bela burst out laughing. "She does! She said so."

"She was lying," Bela informs him and pats his shoulder. "And it's not _summer_."

Charlie frowned at this, Santana had insisted that he was fine the way he was. Sure he wasn't as fit as he was during the year but summer was the only time he could eat what he wanted. He blinks and stares as Bela begins to make her way to her room with his trail mix. "At least get me the remote!"

"Sorry dad, I can't help you," Bela calls out. "Summer gut!"

Charlie's jaw drops, his kids were _horrible_.

~O~

The only good thing about Charlie being _stuck_ using crutches and in his cast was that he could no longer sneak up on her. She could hear him coming from a mile away, which was why she turned to look at him from where she was busy getting ready for a business meeting. She winces slightly, he was pouting which meant that she was probably going to be late. "What did you do?"

"Bela said that you don't find me attractive with my summer gut!"

Santana blinked at her ex-husband and then turned back around to her mirror where she continued to apply her makeup. "Should I be worried about the fact that you're taking what our twelve-year-old daughter says so seriously? I mean she's twelve. You get a beer belly, it's _cute_. It's not drop dead sexy, but it's _cute_. I mean you're still in better shape than the vast majority of Americans. And it only lasts a few weeks where you let yourself go. I'm more worried about what happens when you retire. You are _not_ gaining a hundred pounds. If I'm going to stay in shape, then you can't let yourself go either."

Charlie hobbled up behind Santana, "You want me to be pretty for you when we're older does that mean we're going places?"

Santana sighs, he was such a dork it was unbelievable. "Yes Charlie it means we're going places. Get that smile off your face it doesn't mean that we'll be fucking anytime soon, it just means you're going to be in my life for a long time. Which means that you need to be able to look good in a suit."

Charlie grinned and nodded, "Anything else?"

"Stop listening to a _twelve-year-old_ for advice on what I like? Bela's a terror."

"Our kids are terrible," Charlie agreed leaning his crutches against the counter and reaching for Santana who immediately swatted his hands.

"Stop."

"Santana—"

"No. I'm not going to be late for this meeting. They're talking about a new series for me, it's a reality show but I'm just going to be a judge. It'll be shot in the summer so it'll be after playoffs. It's going to be shot down in New Orleans so I'm not sure—it actually overlaps with the kid's school schedule."

"Which will be fine because I'll handle it," Charlie promises. "You go and do your thing and when school is over we can all come down and visit you. It'll be great."

"Leaving you with our three demon children? My house had better be standing by the end of it." Santana muttered finally turning around so she could face him. He looked rather earnest about this whole thing, and she sighs. "Fine, but I'll see if I can fly back as much as possible depending on scheduling. I think CJ will forget I exist if I don't show up." Santana holds up her finger. "Don't you dare say anything cheesy, I'm going to be late."

Charlie huffed and hopped backwards till he was sitting on Santana's bed. " _Fine_."

"What I don't find attractive, and I don't think any woman does is your whining," Santana rolls her eyes and grabs his crutches so he can have them to move around. "Max's game ends soon so he'll be back home. I have some food in the fridge for dinner that you can have Bela or Tina warm up for you. No junk food for CJ, even if he cries about it." Santana watches as Charlie makes a mental note of everything as she hands him his crutches. "I'll probably be back late in the evening but before CJ's bath time, try and get Bela to help if you need it. You know he's still a bit young to be in the bathtub by himself—just supervise and make sure Max does his assigned reading. No television until he gets it done."

"Right," Charlie agrees and takes his crutches.

Santana leans forward and places a kiss on his forehead. "Try not to break anything."

"I'll be fine." Charlie insists a pleased grin on his face.

"I was talking about my _stuff_. At this point you breaking something else is inevitable. I've seen you with those crutches." Santana teases him. "We'll talk about this after I get more details alright? So try and stay up past your bedtime."

Charlie huffs again, "You're not funny!" He calls out after her.

"You're right, I'm fucking hilarious." Santana shoots back.


	63. Chapter 63

Santana dug her fingers into Charlie's chest, enjoying the way he felt inside her. Sure he was still a cripple and couldn't move around as much as he wanted to, but in her opinion that felt better that she was able to control her pleasure like this with Charlie as a willing participant. It felt like it had been _forever_ since she'd had sex, and Charlie was doing his best to make sure she kept coming back given the circumstances. She most definitely _would_ be back, but only when she felt the itch that needed to be scratched.

As for how she got here, it was hard, with CJ at the park with Tina and the kids at school, she had just wanted to discuss some specifics with Charlie who had taken apart one of her hangers and was attempting to scratch his leg through the cast. It had been amusing and it had reminded her of her damn kids, it was something that she knew that they would do. She had offered to distract him and he had been his usual _cheesy_ self. She really needed to stop rewarding him for being cheesy.

She feels his hands on her hips, touching her running them up her body like he's trying to memorize every line of her body. His fingers and palms were rough on her skin, it was something that she didn't remember, what was he doing with his hands? The thought caused her to stop for a moment, only for a second before she continued. She already knew all his sins, and she had made the mental note to _forgive_ him.

Charlie grunted as he continued to move his hips helping her, he bit his lip and pulled his hands away when she stopped and gave him that look. He wasn't quite sure what he had done but there was a conflicted look on Santana's face. "Santana—"

Santana leaned forward and gently cupped his face forcing him to look at him, if they were going to take this step together she needed to be clear about what she wanted, what she needed from him and the consequences of betraying her again. "If you _ever_ cheat on me again _Charles Reagan Fabray_ , so much as _look_ at another woman and wonder what it will be like to stick your dick inside her, I promise to you that it will be the last thing you do with that organ. Nod if you understand."

Charlie stared at Santana and gulped, she had that crazy look in her eye and he was currently in an extremely vulnerable position with her. It's almost automatic that he nods, only to be rewarded by a kiss from Santana, it was deep and desperate and he adjusts to make her more comfortable. "Never again, I swear," he mumbles against her lips.

"No more tapes, no more anything Charlie—I don't think I could take it. I don't think the family could take it," Santana adds after a moment and feels Charlie nod wrapping her in a tight hug. She didn't want to regret this, she didn't want to be with him for another ten years and find out he'd be fucking everything in sight behind her back again. She had once bragged about how loyal and how loving he was on national television, how _perfect_ of a husband he was only for him to humiliate her. There was a part of her that wondered if she was opening herself up to heartbreak again, but Charlie had been her first love. He was the father of her three children and they were finally figuring out where things had gone wrong. She _wanted_ to go back to the times before CJ was born before this whole shit-show started where they were the perfect couple.

Charlie runs his hand over her back gently he doesn't quite know what to say, how to make her believe that he _would never_ _again_ be that person again when the door to his room slammed open causing him to jump and immediately move to protect Santana from whoever the intruder was.

"Daddy!" CJ shouts and makes a beeline towards his dad only to stop running and stare at his parents who looked horrified. "Why are you nakkie? Hi mommy!"

"CJ what are you—"

"CJ!" Tina called out as she also entered the room and her eyes widened at the sight of Charlie keeping a very firm blanket on both him and Santana. "Oh, shit I'm so sorry it began to rain and I didn't—"

"Tina get _out_ and take him with you!" Santana snapped at her, trying to hide her mortification.

Tina picked up CJ who immediately began to kick and then began to cry as he reached for his father who wouldn't even look at him at that moment. "Daddy! Daddy!"

Charlie winced and looked at his son, "In a minute CJ, let me just put on some pants." He waits until the door is closed before looking at Santana. "What the fuck do we do? The kids will find out and then Bela will think that I'm a liar!"

"Really you care about what your twelve-year-old thinks? We just scarred our son for life!"

"He's _two_ , he's not going to remember this in twenty minutes. Let alone a year from now." Charlie insists, before realizing what he just said. "We're good, he's not going to remember in twenty minutes. We just need to overload him with stimulus and fun stuff so he just forgets it in five minutes." Charlie reached for his boxers and then his shorts and began to tug them on.

"Yes but Tina will remember."

"Why would Tina tell our kids that we were sleeping together? She probably wants to pretend that this didn't happen. She caught us in an awkward moment, that's fine we can figure it out. Why is she back so early anyway?"

Santana grunts as she picks up her bra, this was why she and Charlie _didn't_ have sex in the house. Her kids always seemed to walk in on them or ruined it. She looks outside and winces, she hadn't noticed that it was drizzling lightly outside. No wonder Tina had come back early. "God dammit Charlie you should have paid more attention to the weather."

Charlie flicked his eyes towards the window and then rolled his eyes. "Sure next time you're naked and riding my dick, I'll make sure to keep an eye out on the weather," he replied flatly only to have Santana toss a pillow at his head.

"When you say it like that—"

"No take backs, we're back to being intimate," Charlie stated immediately smirking.

Santana stared at him for a moment before throwing another pillow at him. "Go out there and play with your son. I'll deal with Tina—"

"Santana. We _need_ Tina, don't scare her off. Unless you want to be shuttling the kids around to all their activities. I don't have the patience or the inclination to interview new people. So just smile and inform her that she's not to tell the kids and she should forget what she saw and then give her a small bonus. I'll pay for it."

"Because that sends an _excellent_ message, I'm not going to start bribing Tina. Honestly I don't care if she tells the fucking paparazzi, I just don't want Bela to know. Can you _imagine_ how annoying she'll become if she thinks she's figured us out? She's not even a teenager yet and she's already a fucking know-it-all."

Charlie paused and crinkled his nose, Santana had a point. "Give her the rest of the day off? I'll watch CJ, we can watch movies together, I'll read to him and put him down for his nap. Then we can—"

"No."

"But Santana—"

"No. I'll have to go pick up the kids, and even if I _didn't_ , the kids would be home soon which means that there is more of a chance of them walking in on us. So the answer Charlie is no."

"I was going to say talk about it, and figure out what this means for us," Charlie crosses his arms over his chest.

"No you weren't, you were going to try and get in my pants again."

"You make it seem like you didn't jump me and have your way with me."

Santana rolled her eyes and finished putting on her clothes before opening the door. "CJ your dad's ready for you," she calls out and watches as CJ makes a beeline from his room and nearly runs directly into her. She ducks out of the way and watches as CJ runs directly into his dad's legs. "Careful CJ, your father is still delicate."

"I am not!"

Santana rolls her eyes and turns to Tina, who is looking at her sheepishly. "I think that you already know that we are never going to talk about this ever again. This didn't happen, are we clear?" Tina nods and Santana exhales. "Good, that's perfect. Now how about we let CJ play with Charlie until he gets bored, while we figure out the schedule for next week. Basketball tryouts are starting soon for Max as well as soccer for Bela so that's going to be a lot of moving around."

~O~

Max sighed and poked his father in the arm with his pencil, " _Dad_. Stop staring at mom and help me with my book report!"

Charlie blinked and flushed when Santana turned to glare at him. He quickly turns to his son and flicks his forehead. "You're supposed to read the book, write things down and then I'm supposed to look at it. I'm not doing the work for you. Which means until you have something to show me then I have to entertain myself in other ways."

Bela scoffed at this statement, "By staring at mom?" Bela questioned from where she was working on her science project. She doesn't bother to look up from where she was working. "That's a bit creepy don't you think?"

Charlie puffed out his cheeks, his kids were being mean to him. It had started with CJ walking in on him and Santana this morning and now his kids were making fun of him. "You're all grounded."

"This is mom's house you can't ground us," Max reminded him and pushes his notebook towards his forward. "Check it please."

Santana snorted, and shook her head and turned to CJ who was busy coloring right there beside his dad, ignoring the conversation that was going on around him. She sighs inwardly, it was reminiscent of times that had passed them by. She missed this, this had always been the picture of family that she had in her mind. "As long as your father is living here, he can ground you."

Charlie smirked pleased with himself and immediately put his arm around Max pulling him close, "You hear that Max. I have full parental privileges here, so I can ground you!"

Bela rolled her eyes and looked at her mother, "Seriously? You know he threatens to ground us like every other day."

"Well stop making fun of your father, I thought I taught you better then to make fun of—" Santana nods towards Charlie's leg. "And the old, it's bad manners."

"Yeah but dad makes it so _easy_ ," Max whines and tries to pull away from his father who is now messing up his hair. "Dad let me go!"

Charlie frowns, "Hey! Wait, I'm not _that_ old and I'm not—you guys are the worst," he sighs as he lets Max go.

"But you love us," Santana reminds him.

"Yeah, I do," Charlie smiles.


	64. Chapter 64

**AN: Just a note about Hellfire, Hellfire is perhaps one of the most difficult pieces that I write, and I'm still writing it. In theory. I simply haven't picked it back up for volume 06 yet. Yes Volumes 1-5 are completed, but the story isn't quite finished. The whole point of doing it this way was to sort of push me to complete the rest, but each issue takes forever to write and me to agonize over every last bit of it. It was only supposed to be three volumes. A Santana, Charlie, Quinn story, Santana and Charlie are easy for me but Volume 03 is literally the weakest one and now I'm back on Quinn's POV and I'm dreading writing it. I always wanted to do comic books growing up, but I have zero talent for drawing hence Hellfire.**

 **Anyway long story short, two issues a month gives me plenty of time to actually pick it up again when all the other ideas dry up for a bit, I'll probably start writing the sixth volume in July or August. It'll probably take me a month to three months/until I force a deadline. The story will be updated on fanfiction probably the first and second week of the month.**

* * *

Sue raised an eyebrow, she was _used_ to dealing with egos and part of her job had always been to make sure that her clients were happy and they felt like she was earning her cut. She had a high retention rate, and part of that was because she generally knew how to get her clients exactly what they wanted. It also helped that she could predict problems before they came up. But this wasn't something that she had foreseen and her mind was quickly going over different scenarios where she could capitalize on the scene in front of her.

There sitting in a booth together were Charlie and Santana and their youngest son who was currently sitting on Charlie's lap stuffing bread sticks into his mouth and reaching for his bottle. Dealing with Charlie was easy, while he was sharp and seemed to have a good head on his shoulder when it came to money and asking for her advice when it came to contracts, she was wary of Santana's presence. She had done business before with players who brought their wives along, probably to placate them. It usually led to some form of power struggle of some sorts or worse, they assumed that they knew more than she did because they had heard things from the wives of players.

"Daddy! Eat!" CJ said turning a bit so he could force feed his dad a breadstick.

Charlie took a bite and chewed for CJ's amusement, he wasn't supposed to be eating carbs. "Why don't you feed mommy?"

Santana made a face at Charlie but as CJ turned to look at her she smiled and took a bite, "Mm, breadsticks."

"Charlie—Mrs. Lopez, I wasn't expecting you," Sue said sitting down in front of them, she tries to keep her face neutral at CJ, she was not a children person, especially not a toddler person. "I didn't know that this was going to be a family outing, I'm taking that to mean that things are going well?"

Charlie glances at Santana who smiles pointedly at Sue, "It is, thank you for your recommendation."

Sue glanced over at Charlie who didn't say anything, it was going to be like that. "Good, I'm glad that it's working out."

"Me too." Charlie admits, scratching the back of his head. "That's uh—kind of what we wanted to talk to you about."

"You wanted to talk to me about your sex life?" Sue quirks her brow.

"No." Santana explains, taking over. "We need your advice and you've managed to steer Charlie through worse situations. We are trying again, but we're both aware that this is eventually going to come out. Charlie's fans are invested and even though we're not in the spotlight like we were in LA, no secret is going to stay that way for long."

"What exactly is your 'situation'?" Sue asks directly, expecting Charlie's ex to flinch at her line of questioning.

But Santana matches her gaze and doesn't give any indication that she was affected. "We aren't sure. Charlie and I are figuring that out together. But being a celebrity, people think they know us. They think that somehow gives them some right to our private lives. It sucks, but that's what it is. If we're going to continue, we need some plan to deal with the fallout."

"And you want me to, what? Keep your relationship quiet for as long as possible?"

"If you think that's best." Santana shrugs with feigned indifference.

But Sue's not an idiot. Far from it. She had studied human behavior and is an expert at reading body language and subtle facial cues and can spot Santana's anxiety from half-a-mile away.

Good.

She should be scared. This is their _future_ and Sue can count on one hand the number of clients that don't seem to manage to get it through their thick skulls that it may only take one mistake to derail their careers. Both Fabrays seem to grasp the gravity of their situation and Santana clearly isn't some bimbo with half a brain. Maybe she can work with that. "Well what do you want?"

"We want a strategy." Santana glances over to Charlie to make sure they're on the same page. He nods emphatically and she visibly relaxes. "We want to know that _when_ this comes out, we know what to do."

"We don't want to do some stupid announcement." Charlie explains. "Like I don't feel like I need to alert the world that we're—"

"Dating." Santana supplies, rolling her eyes when he stumbles over the right phrasing.

"Right. That we're dating again. We haven't even told the kids." Charlie admits.

"My advice on that is that it would probably be best to tell them before it comes up in the media. That being said, society _sucks_. Even if Charlie is the one that cheated on you and humiliated you, all the focus is going to be on you. The opinion of many women and rightfully so, is that Charlie is a womanizer and worst case scenario someone who got away with rape. You choosing to go back to him, is going to send a message. But then again, people don't _know_ you. They don't know either of you so their opinion is inconsequential." Sue paused studying the two of them for a moment. "You don't have to make an announcement, but people need to see you together, they need to see you working it out. So it doesn't catch them by surprise. Perhaps we can expand the scope of the small series that we're going to do to showcase Charlie getting back to the court, a few appearances by you and the children."

Santana hesitated and glanced at Charlie for a moment, relaxing when she saw the frown on his face. They were on the same page when it came to this, "We don't really want our kids in the public eye. There are some bad people out there and even if there wasn't we don't really want to _use_ our kids."

"We want our kids to have the most normal lives possible, and yeah occasionally they dart into the public eye from time to time—" Charlie glanced down at CJ. "But, we want them as far away from social eye as possible, they've spent enough time in front of the cameras. They should be kids and maybe when they're older they can make that decision for themselves."

Sue mused over the answer, most people would be eager to become the next Kardashian's but it was good that they didn't want it for their kids. "Well, you are currently living together. The kids don't have to be in it, but I think that Santana should appear a few times. You don't have to make this some huge role, and this isn't about the _drama_. This really is about the work that goes into coming back from an injury like this. Nike is sponsoring this but they will pull funding if they think that this is just some tacky reality show."

"Can you do that?" Charlie asked turning to look at Santana. He frowns slightly, "Do you want to do that? I guess is the better question."

Santana shrugs, she had enough to worry about then appearing on this documentary. "We need to be serious, Nike wants Charlie to appear in the All-Star game and he will, he's been an all-star for seven years in a row. They even asked him to take part in the Dunk contest again even though Charlie should be done with that, he's getting old—"

"Am not," Charlie huffed.

"He's getting old, but he's going to do it regardless. I don't want to take away from that, I don't want people to be thinking will they or won't they, when this whole thing is about getting Charlie back to fighting shape—"

Charlie frowned slightly, it was obvious by the way that Santana was obfuscating that she didn't want to do it. "I don't need more camera's in my life. I'm doing this because it's Nike's idea, I don't actually want people watching me working out. Honestly it's no one's business, so it shows up on TMZ as long as my kids and the sponsors are aware beforehand why does it matter?"

"America loves a love story; they also love a comeback. I'll continue to brainstorm some ideas; to see what we can do to make this as painless for you as possible. But if I were you, I'd suggest breaking it to your kids first." Sue frowns at this and shakes her head, "Now about the Nike deal. Your cast is coming off in a month and after a few days they want you to start physiotherapy, how do you feel about them being right there in the room when they take the cast off?"

Santana snorted at this, "Sure if people want to see the crayons that CJ shoved in there the other night. I'm sure we got them all out but still."

"Not to mention how gross and smelly my foot will be with all that dead skin. I mean I have a spa appointment—"

Santana laughed, "I'm sorry but you can't say that on camera, can you imagine the locker room the guys will make fun of you—Max will make fun of you not to mention what Bela will say."

Sue nods, "You do have an image to protect, which means you can't go on about spa treatments."

"Well that's no fun. Me and CJ will enjoy a spa day together then, he'll probably like playing in the mud baths."

"Charlie—"

"Doesn't that sound like fun CJ? Mud baths!"

Santana groaned inwardly she could already see the small toddler footprints and handprints over her pristine floors and walls.

"I wanna mud bath," CJ said his eyes wide as he looked as his father.

"Just you and me getting pampered, sounds like a blast right?" Charlie grins at Santana as CJ tries to stuff another breadstick in his mouth.

~O~

Max stared at his parents who were both whispering to each other under their breaths. "Are they fighting again?"

Bela looked up from where she was doing her homework and stared at her parents, squinting at them. "No they're flirting," she says after a moment and goes back to doing her homework.

"It looks like they're fighting," Max points out.

"I know, it's because our parents are super weird. But see, dad's trying not to smile and mom just looks annoyed. If they were mad at each other someone would be yelling, they're probably trying to figure out how to tell us that mom's having another baby."

"Mom's having another baby? Why would she do that? We've already have CJ! They already have three kids! We don't need another to share them with, and CJ drools all over my stuff!"

"I know right, but they have been spending a _lot_ of time together and they keep giving each other weird looks. I suppose it was only time. Mom's probably blaming dad, dad's probably super happy about another baby—our parents are _super_ weird," Bela reminded him. She flicks her eyes up when her parents approach the table that they're working at.

Max turns and looks at his mother a betrayed look on his face, "I don't want another brother."

Santana blinked and stared at Max, "Okay?"

"You don't need another _baby_ ," Max continues nodding his head. "You have three of us and we're perfect."

Charlie blinked and turned to Santana, "Wait! You're _pregnant_?"

Santana blinked and immediately pushed Charlie away from her, "No. _No_. How would that even work?"

Charlie frowned at this question, he was absolutely certain that Santana knew how babies were made, they had three of them. Though it would explain why they had never planned for any of their children. "Santana, when a mommy and daddy love each other very much—"

"See Max, I told you our parents are weird," Bela said shaking her head.

"I mean I know how it works, I'm saying how would it work when the—" Santana paused and turned to Max and Bela and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, I'm _not_ pregnant. Your father and I are _not_ having another child—"

"That's what you said after Max," Bela reminded her.

Santana's left eye twitched and she turned to Charlie, "They are _your_ children. You talk to them."

Charlie rolled his eyes, "We're not weird, your mother and I—well we're dating again. That's what we wanted to tell you. It's still a private thing but we're trying to make it work. We're not having a baby right now."

"Ever again," Santana corrects.

"Right, what your mom said. But we are dating which means that I'm going to—" Santana smacked him hard in the chest causing him to cough.

"What your father is saying is that it's our business. We thought it was important that you should know because you're our very annoying know-it-all children, who obviously _don't_ know everything. This isn't that big of a deal so don't make it one."

"Till you get pregnant?" Max asks seriously.

Bela snorted at this and grinned at her brother. "Yeah till mom gets pregnant."

Charlie turned to Santana, "And you were worried that they'd be all _weird_ about this. They're fine."

"It's because we already knew you were dating, you're the _worst_ at hiding it." Bela reminded him. She turns to her mom. "You shouldn't tell dad _anything_ because he can't keep a secret. He smiles and it's obvious that he's lying."

Santana turned to Charlie who shrugged. "This is why no one tells you things," she informs him bluntly before walking away. She probably should have grounded her kids for being disrespectful but that seemed like far too much work and really Charlie deserved it.

Charlie hobbled after her, "They do too!" He insists.


	65. Chapter 65

Charlie Fabray hobbled into the living room where his kids were currently curled up on the couch together watching some silly movie, even CJ seemed rather engrossed in what was happening on the screen from where he was currently sitting onto of Max who didn't seem to mind. His middle child was currently leaning against Bela who for once didn't have her hand on her phone. He smiles, they were _good_ kids. And even though he hated the fact that he was injured, he had enjoyed spending the past few weeks with his kids. But tonight he _really_ just wanted to spend time with Santana. It wasn't about the sex, though it really would be nice, but things had been different and he wasn't sure that they were on the same page. They had three kids together and they had been married for ten years, what the fuck did dating even mean? He knew Santana, just like Santana knew him. This whole thing felt awkward but he was going to fix that tonight.

Charlie hobbles forward and grabs the remote, pausing the movie and forcing his kids to look at him. "Dad! It was just getting to the good part!" Max insists scowling at him.

Charlie shook his head, "As you know your mom is currently out for a business meeting, which means that I'm in charge."

"Mom actually left me in charge," Bela informs him.

"Whatever, the point is I want to surprise your mom with a special dinner tonight. You know candles, some romantic music that sort of thing. I was just going to start making a very romantic dinner when I realized that you three are still around. Unfortunately, or fortunately—Brittany's busy and she doesn't have the room for you. Which means that you have to stay here."

"Daddy, _shush_. I wanna movie. Movie!" CJ insists sliding off the couch and trying to get the remote from his father.

"I don't get it," Max frowns.

"Dad wants to be romantic and he doesn't think he can do it with us here," Bela translated. "So do it another night."

"And here I was going to bribe you to give me and your mom some time tonight," Charlie said flatly.

Bela's ears perk up at that and she shifts and sits up, "When you say bribe—"

Charlie fishes the black credit card out of his pocket, "You can each buy something on amazon, or wherever as long as it's not some sort of scam website. I'm willing up to spend five thousand dollars to make sure that this night goes perfectly."

"Daddy shush—"

"And a pizza."

CJ immediately grinned at his father and wrapped his arms around his legs, "Daddy! Pizza!"

"Good to know that at least one of my children can be easily bribed."

"I wouldn't be so proud of that, Dad." Bela notes. "He's three."

"We can get anything we want on Amazon?" Max stated a slow grin crossing his face.

"That's two," Charlie points out smugly to Bela who rolls her eyes. "Well you have to share with Bela and CJ Max, but yes anything you want. So long as you don't mention it to your mother. You know how she feels about me bribing you."

" _Ugh_ , fine, but that pizza had better have bacon on it, and we'd better be getting ice cream," Bela adds.

"Yeah!" Max adds and nods at Bela, "Good thinking, dad will probably be cheap and not get us the best pizza possible."

Charlie rolls his eyes, he was being overly generous and his kids were still trying to barter for more stuff. They were certainly Santana's kids. "Fine. Just stay out of the dining room and don't cause any trouble tonight."

"Pizza! Pizza!" CJ shouted.

"Call the pizza place Bela and get whatever it is you want," Charlie groans. Santana was going to murder him, but hopefully the kids would be in a food coma and not bother them for a bit.

~O~

Santana blinked when she pushed the door open to her place only to find her ex-husband—current boyfriend sitting on the staircase. He wasn't in shorts or shirt-less, which was really a first for him since he'd begun living with them. The dark baggy jeans and the matching top looked good on him, and she could tell he _knew_ it looked good on him. "Charlie, I'm tired. I don't have time to deal with you being creepy in the dark. Where are the kids?"

"Eating pizza and watching movies, I had dinner made for us by the way. It's in the dining room, it'll be just the two of us for now—how was your day?" Charlie said pulling himself up and hobbling towards Santana. "Let me take your coat—"

Santana blinked and took a step back. "Don't worry about it, I don't want you to like fall and break something else," she said slipping off her coat. "You bribed our children? With pizza?" Charlie shifted at the accusation. "I'm just surprised that Bela decided to not be irritating for cheap."

"Yeah, cheap," Charlie echoes. "Don't worry I didn't make a mess of your kitchen, I had someone make it and then bring it over. I hope you like it."

Santana hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow Charlie, she was curious to see what he had done. Charlie had always been cheap when it came to being romantic. But she was glad that she didn't have to come home and cook for once and that the kids would probably give them at least an hour before they grew bored. "You know you didn't have to do this Charlie, Bela and Max have school tomorrow and CJ was going to be dropped off at that pre-school for half a day remember?"

"It's not about the—" Charlie takes a breath, and scratches his head. "It's not about the sex Santana, I'm just trying to do what Emma told us to do, you know take time out of our schedules to make sure we know that the other is appreciated. So that's what I'm trying to do. Show you that I appreciate you."

Santana studied him for a moment, "You really don't need to try this hard to get laid Charlie."

Charlie groaned as Santana walked past him a smirk on her face, "This is why I don't do nice things for you," Charlie grumbled following his wife. He nearly bumps into her when she stops.

"Breadstixx? How the fuck did you get them to agree to come all the way to Cleveland and deliver—" Santana turns to him, she wanted to shake him. This was the best thing _ever_ , and from the looks of it Charlie had gotten a shit ton of Breadsticks to go with it. "Never mind you probably used your charm—"

"I agreed to do a billboard campaign. Sue wasn't happy."

Santana bit her lip, Sue wasn't happy because Charlie wasn't getting paid. He did need to be more careful with his image but this was sweet even for Charlie. "Well. We did use to go on date nights there, so I guess it's not that bad."

"It was the only spot to go on a date. Well there was that and the bowling alley but you don't wear public shoes and I am terrible at bowling. But seriously we should probably eat before it gets cold." He couldn't think of anything worse than cold Breadstixx, it was already disgusting. He hobbles over to a chair and pulls it out for Santana. "Your chair madam."

Santana rolled her eyes, "You're being _cheesy_ again," she said taking a seat, she pauses as Charlie pushes her in and her eyes flick over to the doorway and blinks when she notices her kids watching them before they duck their heads away. Well, Max and Bela did but CJ waved at her until his siblings pulled him away. She snorts, clearly Charlie hadn't bribed the kids properly. But he hadn't noticed that they were spying on them.

"You love it."

Santana shakes her head and watches as Charlie sits down close to her and reaches for one of the plates, so he can get her something to eat. "I don't, I just learned to tolerate it. You try _really_ hard and that's what I find super cute."

"Sexy," Charlie corrects.

Santana laughs, "Sure, whatever you tell yourself." She can't help but smirk when she hears Bela laughing.

Charlie scowls and turns to the doorway. He wasn't going to let his kids ruin this, it was going well. "Well—"

"I thought dad said he was _cool_ ," Max insists loudly.

"Shut up Max, they can hear you."

"But he's not _cool_!"

Santana glanced at Charlie who had turned a bright red. She reaches over and pats Charlie's hand. "They were going to figure it out sooner or later. Better to figure it now so they won't be heartbroken later."

Charlie shot Santana a dry look and picks at his food, before smirking. "I _was_ a dork. But I think the kids are forgetting that as a dork, I got to date the most beautiful girl in school, plus I married her, plus you know I got her pregnant three times. I've won two NBA championships, I've got three beautiful if not annoying children, I mean by all accounts I'm the biggest winner in the world. Who cares if I'm cool."

Santana smirks, "You might be a winner, but you're still a dork Charlie. Which is fine, I wouldn't have married you if you were one of the cool kids." She's about to take a bite when she feels someone brush up against her. She glances down and smiles down at CJ, she shakes her head he had pizza sauce all around his mouth. "There's my big boy."

"Mommy I has pizza!"

"I can see that. Do you want a breadstick?" Santana asks picking CJ up. CJ immediately reaches forward and grabs a breadstick. "Just like his mommy."

"Wait if CJ is in there with them then why are we stuck outside?" Max asks, before deciding to simply enter the dining room.

Charlie groaned. "Most annoying children _ever_."

Santana laughed, "Come on kids, come and have the best food you'll ever have. Breadstixx—next time we visit your abuela and abuelo we'll stop by. It was where we had our first date you know. He was overdressed, and sweating and you should have seen his haircut and who could forget the retainer."

"You had a retainer? I need to see a picture of that," Bela insists bringing the pizza box into the dining room and sitting down. "We already picked out what we wanted on Amazon dad."

"You aren't getting anything from me," Charlie grumbles.

Santana raised a brow, "What's this about amazon?"

"Dad promised us a shopping spree on Amazon if we left you alone. Five thousand dollars," Max informs his mother.

"Really?" Santana says turning to glare at Charlie.

"Yeah, I said if they left us alone. They failed. My wallet is safe."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he pays up." Santana informs her kids. "Maybe he next time he won't try bribery."

"Santana! They didn't do what I asked them to do which is leave us alone."

"We weren't going to do it Charlie, so if you wanted to have some time we should have waited until they were asleep. So pay up, and learn your lesson." Santana smiles at him and winks at him discretely.

Charlie flushes and nods, "Fine." He was definitely getting laid tonight so perhaps tonight wasn't a complete wash.


	66. Chapter 66

"You know; I've never understood how you handle three of them."

Santana glanced at Quinn who was pouring herself another glass of wine, it was her second glass and that was the _expensive_ brand. "I don't drink copiously when I'm around them. I know it seems to be a thing but both your parents are alcoholics. You shouldn't make that a thing." Santana points out watching as Quinn flushes and puts the glass down. "She's what six months? She is starting to shimmy across the floor, it's worrying I get it. You don't know what she can get into and everything looks like a fucking death trap."

"But it gets better," Quinn sighs relaxing.

"Sure, you get used to keeping a miniature human around and you're super proud of yourself for managing to keep them alive. They eventually stop crying, and they begin to walk which is super terrifying because when they were that age they would wander. Into traffic a few times, in the mall if I didn't hold onto them. CJ probably learned to get out of his crib the fastest. He learned to climb the baby-gate even faster. It's fucking scary shit. Then they develop a personality and then they get sassy and sometimes it's the funniest thing ever until they think that they can comment on your life choices and you realize why people spank their kids. Of course that all means jack-shit compared to you wondering about who their friends are, whether they are doing well in school, if they are getting pressured into all sorts of things. It's not easy, parenting that is. You're going to make mistakes, you're going to get furious with them and forget that they're just kids, you're going to watch them do incredibly stupid and embarrassing things. That's just parenting."

"Rachel wants to have _more_!" Quinn groaned, this sounded terrifying. "She's using you as some sort prototype of how easy it is. ' _Santana's practically a single mother and she has three kids._ ' She was going to ask Charlie about another loan."

Santana smirked, "I'm glad that I give the appearance of it being _flawless_ and easy. But I will say there is a lot less trial and error if you have more. Then again they do surprise you, CJ wasn't as _fast_ as his other siblings when it came to words, but Charlie's already begun to teach him how to read. He can recognize his own name now. He still tries to shove the square into the circle hole so we've decided baby steps are necessary." Santana was quiet for a moment, "I know it's difficult early on and you know that I needed more help in the beginning. So if you need it then find someone to talk to or you know—find something that you love doing that relaxes you. I enjoy the spa."

"Yeah I think that sounds—"

"Mom we need a towel _stat_! Beth just threw up all over dad!" Max rushed into the kitchen. He was trying not to smile at what he had just witnessed. "It was the funniest thing ever."

Quinn's smile faded as Santana's grew. She threw her son a towel that she didn't need. "Really? Was he bouncing her on his leg? After three kids you would think he knew better by now."

"Yeah it was funny, she got some on CJ too he's not happy about it. So dad said he'd give CJ a bath and change—"

"Good, the last thing I need is for your abuela and abuelo to think that I'm doing a terrible job parenting you. Your dad's laundry is still in the laundry room, can you put it in his room and remind him that it's not cute when he decides that you three should match."

"I'm always cute!" Charlie insists as he hobbles up the stairs holding CJ who looked annoyed. "Come on CJ we're a _mess_ and we need to look good right?"

"I'm sorry Charlie—"

"It's fine Rachel, I have three kids it happens."

Santana rolled her eyes and immediately smacks Max's hand. "That's for dessert. So go back and play your video games and annoy Bela and answer the damn door when Brittany and Mike show up—then keep your father away from Mike." Santana looked at Quinn who shot her a quizzical look. "We had to ban him from watching any of the games, he's the worst when it comes to backseat coaching."

Quinn studied Santana for a moment, and waits until Max moves out of earshot before picking up her glass again. "When did you start sleeping with my brother again?"

"We don't sleep together; he sleeps in the guest room. The kids know who to bother when they want pancakes and bacon, and I get to sleep in." Santana responds with a shrug. It really was the best of both worlds, plus she could sneak into his bed have sex with him and go about her business.

"That's not what I mean and you know it," Quinn hisses.

"I know, it's none of your business Quinn. I mean unless you want to hear about me blowing your brother. But I was under the opinion that you get squeamish when I talk about my sex life."

"Of course I do. Anything involving my brother is disgusting and disturbing. But you're still my friend and if you are screwing your ex-husband then there's clearly stuff you need to talk about." Quinn pushes the still full glass toward Santana. "Here, maybe you need this more than I do."

Santana eyes the glass and takes it taking a sip, "There's nothing that I need to talk about Quinn. Your brother is exceptionally good at getting me off these days. We're in a good place, he's still the father of my children. I still need sex, and your brother is very good at meeting those needs."

"You realize that I am going to need a ton of therapy when I'm older right?"

Santana turned to Bela who had entered the kitchen. She can't help but smile at the sour look on her daughter's face. "I'm sure you will."

Bela turned to her Aunt Quinn, "Don't traumatize Beth, Aunt Quinn."

"It'll be the most fun you ever have," Santana promises before narrowing her eyes at her daughter, "That is not an invitation to try and steal food, you'll ruin your dinner. The dinner that I'm slaving over and you should be helping to prepare."

"I feel like I should be taking notes," Quinn says dryly. "We'll talk about it later I'm going to make sure that my daughter and wife are okay. Enjoy bickering." Quinn shakes her head as Bela glares at her mother and Santana merely smiles back. They were similar to similar, and it had nothing to do with Bela being a spitting image of her mother at that age, but it was why they butted heads, but she wasn't going to make that observation.

~O~

Mike shifts uncomfortably in his seat, trying to ignore Charlie's stare. He frowns giving up when Charlie doesn't stop staring. "So when do you think you're going to start joining us for games?"

"When my cast is off. You guys suck without me. How the fuck did you lose to the 76er's? I nearly broke my damn TV. Sue insists that I can't go off like that on the court, something about my image. Besides you're burying the fucking lead."

"Daddy said a bad word!" CJ shouted.

"He did." Santana glares at him with a pointed look. "And he's _really_ sorry about that, aren't you Charlie?"

"Sure." Charlie folds his arms and leans back. He shoots CJ a smile before turning back to Mike and resuming his glare. "The 76ers."

Mike flushes. He didn't like losing any more than anyone else, but without Charlie other teams were able to shut down their passing lanes and cut off their inside shots. Charlie usually stretched out the defense and there wasn't anyone who could compare to a healthy Charlie Fabray. "We miss having you on the court?"

Charlie shakes his head. "I'm going to be out till at least February. Cast comes off next week, I have until All-Star weekend and according to Max I'm already ahead in the polls for my position. He votes every day. So you need to pull it together before I start coming to games."

Mike nods and feels a hand next to him squeeze his knee supportively. "Charlie, Mike's doing his best. That's _all_ you can ask of him."

"All I asked was that they started winning—"

"Santana! Get him to lay off." Brittany turns to Santana who is watching the exchange with only a small hint of amusement.

"It's Thanksgiving. Let's not fight about work, okay? Anyway I need to go check on the ham. Charlie try and say something positive."

"You don't suck that hard."

Santana rolls her eyes when Brittany puffs herself up ready to snap at him. She's about to say something when the doorbell rings. "That's probably my parents. Try and behave so they don't think that I can't control my family." She pauses for a moment and turns to Bela who seems to have a look of glee on her face. "By the way, if you rat me out for a few hundred dollars you're grounded."

"What? Dad! She can't do that—"

"Sorry, Bela. I can and will." Santana declares and Charlie holds up his hands defensively. She smirks when he doesn't try and bail Bela out and heads to the door to greet her parents.

Maribel and Carlos burst in with an air of excitement and energy that seems to always accompany the holidays. Max and Bela with CJ at their heels rush to greet their grandparents. Maribel stops when she sees Charlie still seated at the table with his leg propped up.

Charlie shifts uncomfortably knowing that she's judging him, "Hey Dr. Lopez and Mrs. Lopez. Santana and the kids are taking care of me. I'm a miserable sick person."

"I see." Maribel notes, glancing at her daughter who doesn't even hide that she's avoiding Maribel's eyes.

"But your post op recovery is looking good?" Carlos asks, unable to turn off the doctor part of him.

"Just waiting for the cast to come off so I can start rehab." Charlie confirms.

"That's a good thing, especially with the way the Cavs have been playing. I mean, did you see that game against the 76ers? It was _embarrassing_."

" _See_." Charlie beams triumphantly at Santana, "It's not just me."

"Yes three of the four most important men in my life are obsessed over your team beating the 76ers? I should have known." Santana shakes her head.

"You should be glad you don't live with your father anymore, all this fantasy sports that he's into—it's why you should bring the kids over more."

"Fantasy sports?" Charlie echoes.

"No. Don't you dare Papi!" Santana snaps at her father. The last thing she needed was the headache of both Max and Charlie bonding over some silly video game.

"But—"

"No."

"I have a phone I can look it up you know," Charlie points out reaching for his phone.

"But you won't," Santana frowns at him.

He pauses for a moment, "But I won't," he agrees after a moment.

Maribel raises a brow and studies her ex-son-in-law and then turns to Santana. "So how's dinner going let me help you."

Santana glared at Bela who giggled with glee, she could already hear what her mother was going to say about her life choices. "Sure, let me get you a glass of wine. You want anything Papi? A beer?"

"A beer would be nice," Carlos responds picking up his youngest grandson. "Look at you CJ, you've gotten so big!"

Santana rolls her eyes, of course her father was going to stay out of it. But she quietly heads into the kitchen and grabs another bottle of wine and pours a drink for her mother. "Say—"

"Are you using protection?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself, you aren't silly enough to think that a baby will solve all your problems—"

"Of course not."

"Good, then you're using protection."

"Yes mother, I'm using protection," Santana lied. So maybe she had been a bit lax with it. She had never been good at taking it to begin with.

"Well I understand wanting to take care of him and wanting him to be here, but once his leg is healed—"

"He's staying; he doesn't know it yet. But I've decided to keep him around, it's easier around here with all the kids. He sits there and helps them with their homework, he's begun to potty train CJ. The kids enjoy having him around and picking on him, I like having him around and picking on him. It's a win situation for everyone. Well not for him but he thinks it's a win for him, so it's a double win for me."

"Santana he _cheated_ on you."

"I'm aware, and I know he's not going to do it again. He _loves_ me, and he loves his kids he's not going to fuck up again. Besides why does it matter, we're dating, it might not work out. You don't have to worry I'm going to be okay even if he does cheat." Santana pauses for a moment when the doorbell rings. She hadn't invited anyone else. "Hold your criticism until after I see who's at the door."

Maribel rolled her eyes. Once upon a time her daughter had actually listened to her and did whatever she wanted her too. Then she had turned five and everything had changed.

"Uh—Charlie I think you need to come here, _now_." Santana yelled from the doorway.

Charlie groans, but hobbles toward the front door without anything more than a few choice words muttered under his breath. "I didn't know you invited anyone else—" He stops short when he sees his parents filling in the doorway. "What are you two doing here?"

"Hi son." Russell grins broadly in the doorway before shooting Santana a look of mild annoyance. "Are you going to invite us in?"

"If we don't, does that mean you'll go away."

"They aren't vampires Charlie, they're your parents." Santana rolls her eyes, truthfully a little relieved that he seemed just as annoyed as she felt to have the elder Fabray's intruding on their holiday.

"What were we supposed to do? Our entire family is here." Russell justifies.

"Convenient that we're your family _now_." Charlie points out.

"Can't we just have a nice holiday together?" Judy interrupts. Charlie instantly regrets meeting her eyes as the pleading look from his mother cuts him to the core. "He'll be on his best behavior, I promise."

Santana grits her teeth this was her house, and she didn't want Russell anywhere near her family, or her children. Seeing Charlie hesitate like this was not a good sign, he should be furious. Russell had humiliated him, had made him feel like dirt and she knew that Russell had bullied his son. It had never been easy for Charlie to say no to his father. There would always be that little boy who looked for his father's favor. "Look—"

Charlie shifted on his crutches a bit and straightened up. He was taller than his father and his mother. Apparently he had gotten it from his grandfather, he had no idea if that was true or not he had never met the man. "No. You can come mom, but I made myself clear that as long as you and him are together then that's it. There's nothing that you can say that will make me forgive him or let him anywhere near my family. He wants to bully me, call me all sorts of names than that's fine I don't really care. Used to it but the moment you sold out _my_ son and humiliated him like that there is no way in hell that I'm letting you near them again. So go fuck yourselves."

Santana quells her surprise and immediately smirks at Judy and Russell. "And with that—" she states with glee slamming the front door closed. Her immediate glee fades when she turns to him to see the conflicted look on his face and she reaches for his arm. "Charlie—"

Charlie flashes a smile at her, "When's dinner going to be ready? I'm starving!"

Santana studies him for a moment, he wasn't ready to talk about it, though it was quite possible he was just didn't want to make a scene in front of everyone. It was something that she'd deal with later. "You're always hungry. It'll be another hour, but that's not an invitation to start eating pie and junk food. I made more food than usual because you're a bottomless pit." Charlie flashes her a lopsided grin and she knows he's going to be alright for now.

~O~

Charlie hobbled into CJ's bedroom carrying his son who was currently in a food coma to his bed. He could already feel the drool dripping down the back of his shirt. Normally CJ would have a bath before bed but he had already fallen asleep. "Down you go little man," Charlie said in a hushed whisper. He grins at his son and immediately pulls the blanket over him and rubs his head.

Charlie watches him for a moment before turning around to spot Santana closing the door quietly behind him. "I told everyone that I needed to make sure you didn't trip and accidentally kill our youngest. Are you okay?"

"I know I can be a klutz but—"

"Not about that, I mean about what happened earlier with your parents." When Charlie doesn't answer she frowns. "If you feel guilty—"

"I don't."

Santana arches her brow, but decides not to comment. "Okay."

"I _don't_."

"I believe you."

"I don't feel guilty because my father used and manipulated me for my entire life."

"You're right."

"He's an asshole." Charlie adds through clenched teeth.

"I agree."

"So why _should_ I care that he latched on to my mom thinking that he could slither back into my life? He's an asshole."

"He is." She agrees again. When he doesn't say anything more, she decides to prod him a little. "But it's okay to be hurt."

"I'm not hurt, I'm pissed off."

"At him?"

"No. At _her_. How could she take him back? After everything he's done? To her, to _you,_ to us? How could she just—"

But Santana doesn't have the answers to that. Instead she just enters his personal space and hugs him. "I don't know."

Charlie was quiet for a moment closing his eyes, he felt helpless. "I hurt you," he says finally.

Santana winces she could already see where this was going to go. "You did, but you're not your father. Charlie look at me, you're _not_ him. You did something shitty, the worst and you may think you're not around enough for the kids but they love you. Just as much as you love them, they aren't afraid of you. They want you to stay here and be a family, they aren't running to a friend's house. I mean for fucks sake they make fun of you all the time, that wasn't something you could ever do with your dad now was it?"

"No—I hurt them too—but they've got short memories, I hurt you and I—why are you taking me back? I was an ass to you—I hurt you—fuck I cheated on you."

"I'm taking you back because you're still the same dork that I fell in love with. Sure you've become a bit of an asshole or at least you were an asshole but I see you with the kids, and I know how much they love you and you being here and around it's hard to remember why we broke up in the first place. You're not him, I believe you when you say you aren't going to do it again. We'll probably argue, we'll probably occasionally say some hurtful shit. You're an asshole and I'm a bitch, it's bound to happen. What I do know is that you aren't going to keep kicking me when I'm down."

"That sounds like a recipe for disaster."

"Yeah, but it's our disaster. Now, stop freaking out. You'll wake CJ up and you know how irritable he is when he doesn't get enough sleep."

Charlie nods but he doesn't quite let go of Santana holding her against him. He would be better. He had to be.


	67. Chapter 67

"You know, I spent good money on that mattress to make sure you were comfortable. All because we're having sex on occasion does not give you the right to make yourself comfortable in _my_ bed." Santana said as she tightened her bathrobe and frowned at Charlie. Of course he had made himself comfortable on her bed, laying there in only a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. He doesn't look up at her from where he is currently on his tablet.

"Right," Charlie said absentmindedly reaching down to scratch at his shin. He had made the assumption that when his cast had come off everything would be right with the world but the skin was still a bit raw. Plus, his physical therapy and rehab was brutal. Plus dealing with cameras following him around all the time was irritating as all hell.

Santana frowned and headed to her side of the bed and picked up a pillow to smack him with, "I just had a lovely soak, I had a glass of wine, I read a good book. I don't want to have sex with you, and unless you're going to give me a massage, then go to your own room. The kids are getting used to us sharing a bed again."

"Is that a bad thing?" Charlie questioned turning to look at Santana who rolled her eyes at him.

"No, it's not a _terrible_ thing. I just—what are you doing?" Santana frowns watching as he turns his attention back to the tablet. "Are you—watching your little web series?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because it's insanely popular. You really need to read your twitter account instead of having Sue's henchmen do it for you."

Charlie places the tablet on his stomach so he can look at Santana. "I have to start going to games soon, I managed to shove it till next week, but I'm going to have to start getting myself back into the groove of things. Also practice and the appearances and heading to Nike headquarters. So I need to finish the kids Christmas shopping before my life isn't my life anymore."

Santana climbs onto the bed and shifts so she's leaning against him, "Okay—since when did Max and Bela have a wish list on amazon? Also I thought we agreed that we were buying the kids present together."

"Blame Bela that Max no longer believes in Santa. CJ does, so CJ gets presents from Santa. Which means we get to save at least a few grand on the kid's Christmas presents. Even more if we go with my idea of buying them socks—Max needs new underwear and new shoes."

Santana sighed, "Again? I mean we just bought him new clothes in September! This is your fault."

"Probably, I mean you're probably going to be the shortest one in the—ow!" Charlie flashes her a lopsided grin as he rubs where Santana had pinched. "Sorry, I'm just saying that we could probably get away with just getting them clothes and CJ a few toys. They already have everything they could possibly want."

"That's because you spoil them," Santana reminded him. "We can't get our children _socks_ for Christmas."

"CJ would love it."

"You really need to stop pretending that CJ's opinion holds weight in this situation. I love him, he's probably going to be highly opinionated when he grows up but he's _also three_ right now," Santana reminds him.

Charlie sighs and leans back in the bed, "You're right, but what are we going to do Santana?"

"We're going to look at the popular gift items for our kids' age, then we'll agree not to go crazy this year, and _then_ you will spend way too much money behind my back buying them everything so you can preserve the magic of Christmas. Just like every year."

"No. I meant—" Charlie runs his hand through his hair. "Between you and me. What are we doing?"

"The same thing we do every year, we go out with the kids and pick out what we get each other and then let the kids pay for it. We haven't given each other personal gifts since Bela was three, why should we start now?"

"We're supposed to be turning over a new leaf or whatever. I mean we could do it, but I want to—"

Santana sighs, "Well I can't stop you from doing whatever you're going to do. But you can't spend a fortune on it, I don't need expensive jewelry we live in Cleveland not LA. You also can't be corny and put a bow around your dick and smile at me like you're some sort of genius."

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Fine, anything else?"

"Yeah actually, I've decided I was serious about the massage so hop to it," Santana smirks at him. "And don't think that this leads to a happy ending for you."

He smirks at that and pulls himself up and off the bed. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

~O~

"Where's CJ? It's time for his bedtime routine," Santana frowned when she received matching shrugs from Bela and Max, who were both sitting on the couch flipping through the channels. She scowls, she didn't really expect much from them but keeping an eye on CJ while they were in the living room generally went without saying. " _Max_. _Bela_. Where is CJ?"

"I dunno he just yawned and wandered off—" Bela winced when there was a thud that came from upstairs and she could see the panic in her mother's eyes. If anything happened to CJ, they were going to be murdered.

Santana took off, immediately running up the stairs and stopping on the landing, her heartbreaking when she heard the sound of CJ crying. She immediately frowns, it was coming from the guest room, and her door was open as well. "CJ? Baby, what's wrong?" Santana asks seeing her son sitting on the ground pitifully with a book in his hands.

"Daddy hafta read me story," CJ said holding his book up. "He _hafta_ , he promised!"

Santana blinked and winced, they hadn't given it much thought about Charlie going back on the road. Bela and Max were used to it by now, and she had thought that CJ would be too. She and Charlie had never lived together for this long during his entire childhood. Unfortunately, Charlie had become part of CJ's routine, and it would be a _bitch_ to break him of it. She couldn't blame Charlie for this, it wasn't his fault for spending time with CJ, it was _theirs_ for not explaining it to him. "I'll read you a story."

 _"_ _No_! I want _daddy_ to read me a story," CJ yelled loudly trying to pull away from his mother.

"Your daddy's in _Canada_ CJ, he can't read you a story right now. The game should be starting soon. But he'll read you a story when he gets back. He should be back in the morning—"

"I want _daddy_! Where daddy!" CJ yelled kicking his legs out. "He _promised_."

Santana groaned, she took it back it was totally Charlie's fault that CJ was throwing a tantrum and she couldn't just lift him up and hold him until he calmed down. That only seemed to work with Charlie, and CJ was heavy. "How about we—"

"NO! I want daddy!"

Santana sighed and looked at the ceiling, well he would certainly wear himself out before long, and she was tempted to just let him cry it out when her phone begins to ring. She frowns and pulls it out ready to tell the person to give her a moment when she sees Charlie's name on her screen. She frowns he had gotten into her phone and changed the picture to his abs. She'd yell at him for it later. It was a facetime call and immediately answers it. She sighs when as it connects. She's about to snap at him when he flashes her a smile.

 _'_ _Oh you're done with bath time—'_

"DADDY!" CJ shouts getting onto his feet. "DADDY! I'm _here_! Where are you daddy!" He immediately tried to grab the phone out of his mother's hands only for Santana to lift it higher so he couldn't reach.

"We are _not_ done with bath time; your son is focused on you reading him a story Charlie."

' _Yeah because I promised, I even bought the same book so I could read it to him._ ' Charlie said holding up the picture book. ' _Like we used to do with Max and Bela remember?_ '

Santana opened her mouth and then smiled, "Yeah, we did use to do that all the time didn't we? Unfortunately, CJ's throwing a tantrum, he hasn't had his bath yet."

' _What? Let me talk to him!_ ' Charlie insists, and waits until Santana hands CJ the phone. ' _What's this I hear about you not having your bath CJ?_ '

CJ promptly ignored the question, "Daddy you _hafta_ read me a story! When you home?"

' _Early in the morning, I'll probably be there when you wake up,_ ' Charlie promises with a shrug. They had a flight to catch right after the game, and he probably would be in after midnight.

"You _promised_."

' _I was going to read you a story CJ, see I have the book right here. Your mom will turn the pages for you and I'll even do the voices_.'

"Oh god not the voices," Bela groaned from where she was listening from the doorway.

"But—" CJ frowns not liking the sound of that. "You promised."

" _I know CJ, but daddy has to work now. I'll see you tomorrow I promise._ "

CJ's lip quivered at the thought and immediately clung to his mother when she picked him up. "He promised!"

Santana sighed, they were going to have to make this part of CJ's routine. They hadn't gotten him used to the idea that Charlie would have to be leaving a lot. They would need to get him to understand that Charlie would be coming back. "Your dad is going to read you a story, just like he promised CJ. See daddy has the book in his hand and he's just waiting for you to put on your pajamas and he'll read it to you."

CJ sniffs and wipes his snotty nose on Santana's shoulder. "Okay."

Santana nods, "Alright go put on your pajamas and I'll be right there, okay?"

"Okay," CJ nods and she puts him down so he could wear his PJ's like a big boy. She shoots a pointed look at Max and Bela who immediately scatter and waits until she has a moment alone with Charlie. "The kids miss you."

' _I know, I'm sorry, things got sort of hectic on my end. Would have called sooner, but you know how things are._ '

"I do—and I was going to wait till Christmas to tell you this but I think it's best if we talk about it now. You're not moving back to your place. You can sell it or whatever, but the kids need you around. I _need_ you around."

Charlie blinked, ' _Okay_.'

"Okay? You're not going to—argue for your little man cave?"

' _Why the hell would I do that? I hate living alone. It sucks. I just can't like start freaking out right now. People will think I've lost it_.'

"So you're okay with me telling you to sell your penthouse?"

' _You can get an agent and put it on the market tomorrow if you want. I'll have some people move the stuff into storage and my stuff into_ —'

"The guest bedroom. There is no room for your crap in my closet."

' _But—_ '

"Charlie you've seen the closet, there simply isn't the room for both of our things. We'll figure it out later but for now you need to read your son a story. Next time let me know before you make promises so we can get him ready for you going on the road."

' _Right, I honestly thought he'd be okay with this. I guess I was wrong_.' Charlie sighed, he'd have to sit CJ down and have a conversation with him about it. It sucked but he was getting to the age where he needed to understand what being an NBA player meant for their time together. He was glad that he planned to retire in the next few years so he wouldn't have to miss any more of this. But until then he was stuck flying across the country and into Canada for events.


	68. Chapter 68

She wasn't some sort of Grinch, she liked Christmas just as much as the next person but her ex-husband—current boyfriend, generally ended up taking Christmas _way_ too far. There was the light show that you could quite possibly see from space and increased her power bill by an insane amount. She could live with that, she could even live with the Christmas carols that were blasted through the house daily. She didn't want to complain about the giant Christmas tree that had been professionally decorated, which was probably a fire hazard and a pain in the ass to clean up, especially since CJ had already accidentally knocked a few ornaments down. It wasn't that she would have to cook up another picture perfect dinner, for her family and extended family. She was used to it by now.

What really bothered her about Christmas was—

" _Mommy!_ I saw Santa!" CJ shouted as he tried to shake her awake. "Me and daddy see _Santa_!"

"You should have seen all the presents he brought Santana! Come on it's time to wake up! Presents Santana! Presents!"

Santana opened and looked at her alarm clock. She can't help but narrow her eyes at her ex-husband and soon to be ex-boyfriend. "It's 3 am."

"Presents!" CJ cheers.

"Santana. Santa was here. Which means that we can open presents," Charlie informs her as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

He was a child; she was dating a man-child. She hadn't needed to have children she had him. "The other kids aren't even awake—"

"CJ go wake up Max and Bela! So they can open their presents!" Charlie says saluting CJ who grins and scampers off.

Santana waits until CJ leaves before turning to look at Charlie who had a huge grin on his face. "Come here."

Charlie has all the wisdom in the world to take a step back and out of Santana's reach. "Santana, it's _time_ to wake up. It's Christmas." He wouldn't be able to stay all day, he had to be at a game and there were a few charities that he needed to show up to and a Children's hospital.

"Come here," Santana repeats again.

Charlie puffs out his cheeks and takes a step closer to the bed and sighs when Santana motions for him to get closer. He knows what's coming and doesn't bother to duck when the pillow smacks him upside the head. "Santana!"

"It's _three am_! Don't 'Santana' me! CJ's going to pass out later, so are Max and Bela and I'm going to be a grumpy bitch and it's all—"

"I have to work today; you know that my life isn't mine. I'd love to spend the day with you and the kids opening presents and building things and doing all that for the kids, but I can't. I have to go to the children's hospital, I've got to do some team events for other children, and I have to be at the game tonight. So yeah I woke the kids up before our agreed time, and yes I'm being selfish but it's _Christmas_." He's whining now and when Santana shoots him an unimpressed look he sighs now came the bargaining. "I'll make breakfast."

"Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausages, French toast, and plenty of fruit." Santana informs him bluntly. "The works," she says after a moment before gripping him by the front of his ugly Christmas themed shirt and pulling him for a kiss. "I can deal with five am wake up calls but we spent most of the night getting it ready for the kids, all I asked was for five hours of solid sleep."

Charlie smiled and shifted so he could kiss her some more, "Oh, because I didn't want the kids to get to it."

"Charlie if there's a bow on your—"

Charlie fished a crumpled envelope out of his pocket and winces, he had fallen asleep with it. "Sorry, but Bela would have opened it if I had left it out under the tree or it would have gotten lost. I don't trust our kids."

"Good call," Santana says and takes the envelope. "If this is a gift card—" She shakes her head and opens it. Inside are two tickets and an itinerary and she quickly unfolds the paper so she can have a quick look. "The weekend away from the kids? I mean it's lovely but don't you have—"

"I looked over the schedule, I don't have games for like four days, I asked your parents to watch the kids for a weekend and we have Tina—I just want to spend some time with you without—"

"DAD! Did you send CJ and Max into my room to wake me up?" Bela shouted from her room.

"That. I thought the two of us could reconnect and you know have a vacation without the kids. The spa is supposed to be really good and I mean it's cheap and we're out of the snow—"

Santana immediately slipped the letter under her pillow as the kids came running into her room and tackled Charlie who tumbled onto the bed. She loved her kids but she needed some time to recharge and it would be like the honeymoon that they had never had. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes, okay now let's go see what Santa brought for CJ."

"Wait why CJ?" Max demanded.

"Because you don't believe in Santa anymore, but CJ does and CJ saw him tonight putting presents under the tree." Charlie informs him bluntly. Despite his words, he knew there was at least one gift from 'Santa' under the Christmas tree.

Max stared at his father for a moment a distressed look on his face. "Bela said he wasn't real!"

"Well, CJ saw him didn't you CJ?" Charlie smiled.

CJ nodded sagely, "Quiet Max! Shush! Scare Santa."

Max stared at CJ and tried to piece together his word salad. "But _dad_!"

"I don't know why you're taking this up with me? Take it up with Santa."

"Your sister doesn't know everything Max, you really need to stop taking her word as some sort of law," Santana says after a moment. "You need to learn to think for yourself instead of just following what everyone says."

Max's bottom lip trembled, "Did you at least get me presents?"

"Of course we got you presents, socks and underwear which was your dad's idea but you still get to unwrap some gifts."

"Socks!" Max shouted turning to his dad.

"And underwear!" Charlie adds and smiles and winks at his son. "Why don't you and CJ head down there and see what you got. Let me grab Bela."

"You can't carry Bela down the stairs on that ankle Charlie, you just said it's getting better. I'll get Bela you go and keep the boys from opening everything before I get downstairs." Santana shook her head, personally she was of the opinion that Charlie simply needed to take the season to fully recuperate but he was progressing with his timeline rather well. Well, according to his doctors anyway. He was still hesitant to play the way he normally did. He wouldn't admit it to anyone but he was afraid that this was it for him. He probably had an end date in mind when he would retire. She pushes it out of her mind for now and instead gets up to go and wake Bela, already aware that her near teenage daughter was going to be displeased.

~O~

Christmas and Thanksgiving were the two times a year that Charlie actually threw his diet out the window. It was the only two days that he ever put himself in a food coma, and like clockwork it had happened again. She had spent _years_ being annoyed when he and the kids crashed on the couch to let her clean up all of the mess.

But this year was different.

She smirks as she throws the last scraps of wrapping paper in the trash bag and shakes her head at all of her boys crammed together on the couch, dead to the world. There's currently a puddle of drool on Charlie's back from both Max and CJ who are curled up on his back. Charlie doesn't seem to notice or care that his kids are on top of him as he drools all over her expensive couch. She shakes her head and runs a hand through Charlie's hair for a moment before deciding to take a picture and post it on Instagram. It really was an adorable picture and people would love it.

 _'_ _Happy Holidays from me and my boys. At least they're wearing pants.'_

She posts it before she can talk herself out of it. She was probably going to have to answer questions about the drool. She shrugs it off for now and glances at Bela who was scowling at her brothers. "You know you can curl up with your dad anytime, he still thinks of you as his little princess."

Bela huffed at her mother, "You should have stopped after me."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Maybe, but you have two brothers who love you dearly. Max got into a fight to protect you with a much older boy, he believes nearly everything that comes out of your mouth. He _loves_ you, CJ loves you, your dad loves you. Sure they'll probably be over protective and hypocritical at times but when some douchebag breaks your heart, I'm sure Max and CJ will try and kick his ass."

Bela scowled, "I don't want him to treat me any differently because I'm a girl." She glances at the pile of bodies on the couch.

"Your father bought you and your brothers a laser tag set and various nerf guns, he didn't get you the _girl_ version of it, he got you the normal version of the guns. He expects you to be ultimate competitor, so if you want to curl up with your father and fall asleep. You can do that. I may even join you, after I start getting ready for this evening, which apparently means cleaning up your father's cooking in the kitchen."

"He won't mind?"

"Your father's a cuddler, of course he won't mind," Santana shook her head. Was she ever this unsure of herself? Charlie had been spending a lot of time with the boys lately, it was no wonder Bela felt a bit left out. Especially since he hadn't been around as much to help with the homework. She'd talk to him about it and make sure he scheduled some Bela time. She watches as Bela nudges her dad and he immediately shifts on the couch carefully to give her some space to join him. She'd definitely be taking a picture of that later. She had an hour or two before Charlie needed to be up and shower, and she couldn't give Charlie his gift with the kids around. So she would need to busy herself for now, and make sure that the candy was hidden before Charlie and the kids woke back up.

She sighs, a mother's work was never done.

~O~

"No mommy! Daddy on TV!" CJ shouted at his mother who moved to change the channel. "See daddy!"

Bela groaned, "It's not interesting to watch if dad's just sitting there. I mean he's not even playing; why did he even have to go in today? It's Christmas, it's like a public holiday."

"Your father is the captain, if everyone else has to miss spending time with their family to play, then he has to miss spending time with his family as well. Something about sacrifice. At least they're winning," Santana throws in deciding to put the remote down. It was boring to watch him sit there and try and look professional, instead of miserable like he felt. He had never been good with just watching the game.

"That's stupid," Max mumbled under his breath. He reaches over and pats CJ's head, he remembered the time when he was little and seeing their dad play.

"Yeah it is," Bela agrees and picks up her phone, she had yet to show off all her swag to her friends. She wasn't allowed to post her stuff on Instagram like normal people because her parents were paranoid of someone breaking in, or coming after them, but she could text it. She does decide to see what's up on Instagram, and almost immediately she gets bombarded with questions from her fans. Or at the very least people who wanted to be her. She had no idea why, her parents were weird and she had two brothers who were also weird. "Mom, what did you do?"

Santana glanced up at Bela, "I don't know what you're talking about—"

"People are asking if you and dad are together!"

Santana shrugs when her parents turn to look at her, her mother giving her the evil eye. "Well we are, no point in hiding it. Besides it was a cute picture, and they were all in cute Christmas themed pajamas. The world needed to see it."

"What picture?" Max asked getting off the couch and heading to his mom.

"This one!" Bela said holding up her phone.

"There was nothing untoward about the picture, it's just my three boys sleeping. Honestly I thought I'd have more questions about the clear and disgusting amount of drool." Santana sighs in an exasperated tone.

"This is going to put you in the media eye again," Maribel said finally.

"I'm aware, but I've thought about it—it's a good move for our careers right now. People will finally stop shipping me with Sam. Nike loves it, because when this eventually dies down he's going to launch his new shoe-line and that's going to be all anyone is talking about. I thought this through."

"And you talked to Charlie about it? Because he's the one that's going to get to be hounded by the media," Carlos pointed out.

Santana shrugged and smiled, "He knows how to handle the media and if he doesn't that's why he has Sue." She wasn't worried, truthfully it was the most relieved she'd felt in weeks. People would know that Charlie was _hers_. Sure it would probably mean that he would start getting more attention from women but she trusted him.


	69. Chapter 69

Santana smirked as she ran her hand along Charlie's naked ass, before giving it a gentle swat. She's not surprised when Charlie mumbles in his sleep and grips the pillow that he was currently drooling on a bit tighter. She bites her lip, "You're _incredibly_ lucky that you're an adorable dork," she says with a shake of her head.

She would never admit it out loud, but she had needed this. A few days away from the kids, her parents, work, balancing schedules, keeping the house spotless, being the perfect _mother_ and—whatever this was. So a day, or a couple of days where she could eat what she wanted, and be pampered by not only the spa staff but Charlie as well, she runs her fingers along the scratch marks on his back. He had been very helpful in helping her get out the stress.

She flops back on the comfortable bed and smiles when Charlie practically shifts to latch onto her, this felt _familiar._ It felt right, being here with him felt right. They had never done this before even when they had been married, and she still wasn't sure what it truly meant. Did it mean things were going to be _better_? Things had been _good_ between them. Close to perfect, they were finally on the same page, and she knew he _loved_ her. He had already apologized, it didn't matter if he apologized a million more times, there was something that caused her to hesitate. Things had been _good_ before; she had thought that they were good but he had cheated.

She had always thought that there would be _some_ sign, some indication that he was having a torrid affair, but she had never been able to tell. If she hadn't seen the leaked footage, and he hadn't admitted to it she would never have believed anyone. So how was she supposed to trust all this? To trust _him_?

She wanted _desperately_ to go back to way things were. Where they were happy, where she didn't have this _doubt_ about him. She'd like to believe that he wouldn't stray for the children's sake, but he _had_ before and there was nothing that would anything would change.

"Tana, the whole point of this trip—was to get away from everything that stressed you out. I mean I gave you some of my best stuff for at least a couple hours and I know it's not like we're kids but I'm _old_." Charlie murmured against her shoulder. "Stop thinking so hard."

"You're just turning thirty-three, you're not that old," Santana responds turning over so she's facing him. He was a terrible liar when he was put on the spot. He rarely bothered with lying to her. "I was thinking—"

"Santana, I love you but there is nothing you can do to make me ready to go. I am an _old_ man now."

"I can think of five things that I can do that will make you rise to the occasion," Santana fires back, he knew it too, but she was sexually satisfied and that wasn't what she wanted to do with him. "I was wondering if you were happy?"

"I just had sex for two very good hours, yes I am pretty happy," Charlie responds. He can practically feel Santana roll her eyes. "I know that's not what you meant, I know that you want to know if I'm _happy_ with _you_."

Santana waits for a moment, but when he doesn't say anything, she frowns. "Well? Are you? I just realized that I don't actually _know_ when you're happy. I mean I thought we were—"

"I'm _happy_ when I'm with you. Those other girls never made me _happy_ —they didn't make me feel _anything_. You make me feel shit; happiness, sadness, you're the only person on this planet that can cut me deeply. I know that now. And I'm not scared of that, I trust you, and I will keep earning your trust every day. Until you trust me again."

"You're being disgustingly cheesy again," Santana says after a moment flipping over.

"I know, but you love it." Charlie says nuzzling her back. "I'm happy and if I wasn't then I'd talk to you about it." Charlie promises, before hesitating. "Are you happy?"

"Well, I was thinking that I could go a few more rounds but—" Santana smiles when she hears Charlie huff. "I think I am. It feels like before—you know everything happened. And I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, the next scandal, the next big thing that will rock our family. I just—I don't want to spend my life waiting for the next huge blowup. The thing is I don't think I'll be happy with anyone other than you. I don't want to be happy with anyone other than you." Santana sighs and turns to look at him. "Tell me you'll never do it again, that you won't—"

"I won't. I'm not going to disappoint you again; I'm not going to _hurt_ you like that again. I mean it's not just you I'm going to be hurting Santana. I can't do that to the kids, I can't do that to Bela or Max—or CJ. I don't want to be like my dad. I don't want everyone to hate me, and I don't want to keep hurting you knowing that you'll take me back. I just want you and the kids. I want to retire in a few years so I can still be there for the kids, especially Bela."

"Bela—she's got a good head on her shoulders, I mean she learned from her mistakes and that's all we can ask of her. I'm more worried about Max's temper and his weird unhealthy desire to please you. I mean I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to worry about when it comes to CJ like his weird food thing—but I mean, he's three."

"Max will be fine, I mean he's trying new things and he's going to become his own person. I'll support him in everything but football. He's far too smart for that, and twenty years from now I don't want to see him lose himself because of all the head trauma."

Santana nods, this had gotten far too heavy for what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. "Is this our thing now? We spend a few days away from the kids together?"

"Well I think we should have date nights again; I mean it's not as if the world doesn't know that we're seeing each other again. It was a story for all of five minutes, and to think we were worried it was going to become this _thing_. Just a few hours away from the kids for ourselves."

"I'd like that," Santana admits before smiling and reaching downward. "Just like I'd like a few more rounds, remember you promised to be my sex slave until we had to leave."

"I _certainly_ don't remember making a promise like that," Charlie groans. "Just give me a moment—" he says before his phone starts to ring beside him. He groans and reaches around so he can grab it. He flashes the screen to Santana before answering it. "Hey Bela," he says answering the Facetime call.

" _DADDY!_ Story! Daddy! I miss you!" CJ said as his face appeared on the screen.

Santana adjusted herself so she can see CJ, "CJ what are you doing with Bela's phone?" When her son laughs, she grimaces. Bela was going to be thirteen soon and she was already attached to that damn phone. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Story time!" He reminds his mother forcefully. "Daddy, _story_."

Charlie groaned, "Fine CJ but your mom has to help me."

"Don't drag me into this!" Santana grumbles at him, but she's already up getting the book from their luggage so that they could read to their son.


	70. Chapter 70

Santana stirred as she felt warm calloused hands travelling down her back gently. She bit her lip, and let out a small pleased groan when they rested on the small of her back, feeling the fingers slowly began to massage one of her secret erogenous zones. "Stats?" She questioned sleepily. It was his first game back and while Max had watched it like the dutiful son, she simply didn't have the time.

"You didn't watch the game?" Charlie asks huffing a bit. His ankle was killing him but he had played some excellent basketball.

"You were playing Milwaukee, of course I didn't watch. Did you lose or something? I mean it's been pretty touch and go there."

"Of course not, we won," Charlie responds. "I told the guys I would personally light their asses on fire if we didn't look like a champion team."

"Good. Now, stats?"

"Forty points, ten assists, eleven rebounds, two steals, one block, no turnovers."

Santana blinked, those were excellent stats. She had been expecting a good game, and those stats meant that they had played him more than the twenty minutes he was supposed to play to get his body warmed up. It certainly explained all the yelling that had come from the living room. "How's your ankle?"

"Hurts like a fucking bitch but once I got on a tear they didn't want to pull me out. The trainers bitched at the coach though so they're keeping me back to twenty minutes," Charlie admits rotating his ankle. "I'm going to ice it for most of the day and see the physiotherapist and the rest of the trainers."

"I know Sue said to put on a show for that audience and announce to the league that you're back but you've still got to play in the All-Star game in a few weeks. You can't injure yourself again, so you need to be careful. At least you put everyone on notice that you're back." Santana lectured, before sighing he probably wasn't listening. "Stats?"

"Sixty-six percent, and eighty-five percent from the three-point line. Got all of my free throws." Charlie responded grinning. "I thought you were watching," he admits.

"So you were trying to prove what a stud you still were?" Santana teases.

"Yes? Did it work?" Charlie asks. "I mean I have more evidence if you want," he grins and gently shifts his hips against Santana's so she could feel how hard he was getting.

"Maybe, I think you're going to need to show me _repeatedly_ ," Santana smirks, ignoring the horrid feeling of Deja vu. This was the man that she had fallen in love with, and they were back to their normal. She didn't know quite what that meant anymore, all she knew was that she was happy.

"Will do," Charlie grins leaning down to kiss her, he draws his hand along her stomach running his hand along her body before trailing his fingers upward. He was in the clear—

"Daddy?"

Charlie froze, he had left door to the bedroom open just a crack, he groans. His kids were such cock-blocks. "Hey CJ."

His son yawns and immediately heads to the bed and climbs on, hugging his father tightly. "I missed you daddy."

"I missed you too CJ," Charlie shifted on the bed so he could scoop CJ up. "How about we go back to sleep okay champ? You're going to be grumpy tomorrow—"

CJ nods and immediately crawls off his father and into Santana's arms and yawns again. "Hi mommy," he greets before curling into a ball against her.

"In your own bed," Charlie groans when Santana chuckles at his misfortune.

"Next time leave the door closed," Santana reminds him watching as he pulls off his shirt and lays down on the bed beside her and CJ. She adjusts her blankets so her son is tucked in looks over at Charlie who was rubbing CJ's back gently.

Deja vu be damned, this was the life that she wanted.

~O~

Santana groaned, and picked up both Max and CJ's shirt from the ground on her way to the laundry. She didn't want to know what they had been up to, but if the nerf darts and little balls were any indication there had been a war in her hallway. She stops when she notices Charlie's shirt on the ground. She shakes her head and grabs it, before heading to the laundry room. She'd get them to clean it up later, and maybe throw the lot of them in time out. She smiles to herself at the thought of Charlie sitting there with Max and CJ. He would pout just like his boys.

She pauses outside the guest room, which was formerly Charlie's bedroom and glances inside to see if he had any laundry that she needed to do and notices that he's currently on the bed with a pack of ice on his ankle a pillow on his head as he lays back. "Are you okay?"

"No. I think my foot is going to fall off," came Charlie's muffled response from under the pillow.

"Is that what the physiotherapist said?" Santana asks entering the room and putting the basket of laundry beside his door.

"No, she called me an idiot," Charlie grumbled and shook his head. "Idiot who scored forty points last night."

"Well, she's right. You _need_ to be smarter about this Charlie. I know you're used to playing while you're in pain but you aren't nineteen anymore. You're getting old, and you need to prolong your career."

"I know, I know I'm not going to be winning any MVP awards this year, but I'm not that old Santana. It's just taking a bit longer to heal—"

"Because you're old."

"You know what they do to athletes that are past their prime? They shoot them and take them to the glue factory."

"You're not a horse."

"But I have a—"

"Finish that sentence and I'm going to walk out of here with that laundry basket and leave you to suffer." Santana snapped at him.

Charlie bit his lip as Santana straddles him, "Where are the kids?"

"Max and Bela are at _school_ , CJ is at his daycare for the day. You insisted that he needed to make his own friends. Tina's bringing them home." Santana reminds him rolling her eyes when he grins.

"So I can spend the next few hours, proving what a stud I still am?"

"You really need to stop saying stud, you've never been a stud. You've always been a dork—"

"Who is really good in bed and loves you dearly," Charlie grins when Santana scowls at him. She didn't like being interrupted but he can't help but lean up and kiss her deeply. "I love you," he murmurs against her lips.

"I know," she replied touching his face. "I love you too, even though you _really_ need to shave. You know I don't like you _scruffy_."

Charlie huffs but kisses Santana deeply. "I'll shave it later today."

"You also need to take Max and CJ for haircuts, we'll make a day of it. I need a haircut myself, and I want to get my nails done. I'll take Bela."

"I need a manicure and pedicure too," Charlie reminds her, kissing down her neck.

"Like I said, we'll make a day out of it," Santana groans when Charlie finds her favorite spot. It was his favorite spot as well—she'd trained him well.

~O~

Santana leaned against him, curled up on the couch. "You know the kids will be home soon," she mumbles against his chest just enjoying being there in that moment with him.

Charlie shakes his head, "I know, maybe we can watch something other than Toy Story tonight. I think I know all the words."

"You're the one that lets CJ pick the first movie, he _loves_ Toy Story. Buzz Lightyear, is his favorite."

"Well, maybe we need to get him to see other movies, you know the classics. Indiana Jones, Star Wars, good old fashioned fun like that."

"He already enjoys doing drive-bys in his little car with his Nerf gun, we are _not_ getting him a Lightsaber or he'll be hitting everyone with it and wanting to fight. Or he'll want a whip or something." Santana groaned, she didn't know what she was going to do with CJ. Out of all of her many children he had to be the most devious.

"I can think of a few uses for that whip," Charlie grins at Santana.

"So can I, but I'm sure the guys would ask questions when they saw how red your ass was." Santana rolls her eyes when Charlie's grin only gets wider. "The _kids_ will be coming home soon; I am not going to partake in your weird BDSM fantasies today."

"Which implies you'll do it at a later date," Charlie grins and kisses her cheek.

Santana rolled her eyes, "I don't know what's wrong with the cuffs. You _loved_ the cuffs."

"So did you, but I mean remember before the kids were born?"

Santana laughed, they had done some kinky stuff when they were teenagers. "We did have wild kinky sex didn't we?"

Charlie nods solemnly, "I mean I'm not saying that the kids ruined our sex life but—"

"They totally did," Santana agrees. "But now that they're going to be in school, I don't see why we can't you know continue where we left off."

Charlie grins, "We need a—" he frowns when the doorbell rings. "They're a bit early aren't they?" The smile on his face fades when Santana pulls herself off the couch and away from him. "Santana?" He frowns when the doorbell rings again a few seconds later.

That feeling of Deja vu was back tenfold and she was uncharacteristically nervous, Charlie had promised no more scandals, but she could feel another one brewing. Was it the cops come to arrest him again? How would she explain it to her kids and there was nowhere that she could run to? Her eyes follow Charlie who was heading to the door. Exhaling deeply, she gets up and immediately follows him. If he was going to break her heart again she wasn't going to hide on the couch she was going to face it straight on.

He doesn't look back at her as he opens the door, and almost immediately a loud squeal is heard as he gets jumped by Brittany and he winces as he immediately steps back to steady himself. " _Brittany_! Ow! What the fuck?"

"I'm _engaged_!" Brittany yelled, spotting Santana hanging back. "He proposed!"

Santana blinks at Brittany, the suffocating feeling of anxiety dissipating immediately. "He proposed?" She narrows her eyes at Charlie. "Did you know?"

Charlie dropped his sister onto the ground, "Of course I did, Mike asked me if it was okay. I just thought she'd go and see mom or Quinn first and leave me alone. What the hell are you doing here Brittany? Go away."

Brittany promptly ignored him and headed to Santana so she could show off her ring, "See! Look at how big it is!"

Santana let out a low whistle, it was a rather big rock probably so Brittany wouldn't lose it. "Congratulations, Britt, I'm happy for you." Santana said hugging her tightly. "I'm totally your maid of honor right?"

"Matron, you've been married and you have kids, you're not a maid anymore," Charlie corrects as he closes the door and hops to the kitchen to get another bag of ice.

"Ignore him, he's a dick! Of course you get to be my maid of honor." Brittany squealed. "You have to totally help me plan it. I want a _huge_ wedding."

"Of course, I know just the wedding planner," Santana gushes and glances at Charlie who was emptying the ice tray into a Ziploc bag. It doesn't take him long to hop back to the couch. "One second, let me grab my phone and my tablet and we can start right now." She heads into the living room where Charlie is currently icing his foot. "You owe me fifty dollars," she says with a smile.

Charlie scowls, "I was hoping you'd forget," he grumbles, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet so he can hand her the money. He pulls out a hundred-dollar bill. "You have change?"

Santana grins and reaches to snatch the bill from him, only for Charlie to grab her wrist and pull her closer. "What are you—"

"I haven't done anything. There are no tapes, there is no one else but you," he murmurs into her ear.

Santana flushes, she teased him about being slow but he wasn't, he was sharp when he wanted to be and he had noticed her hesitation. "I believe you," she says after a moment. Her world wasn't crashing down around her ears because of something that he had done. Now she had to make sure that Brittany didn't bankrupt Mike for this wedding. According to Charlie, Mike was only paid the veteran's minimum. Brittany would be comfortable for the rest of her life but she wasn't exactly _set_ like they were.

Charlie lets her go after a moment and watches as Santana swipes his hundred-dollar bill. He had never thought that this day would come he should have intervened _ages_ ago. Now he was out a hundred dollars. "It really should be until they say I do," he grumbles.

"You don't get to weasel your way out of this one," she grins at him. There was ages until they finally got married and Brittany would probably drive Mike crazy, best to collect now while she had officially won. "Now hand me my tablet and my phone. We need to start planning. Bela's going to love this!"


	71. Chapter 71

"Dad _has to_ win!" Max insisted loudly as he helped CJ put on his special edition All-Star Jersey. His brother had put it on backwards and that simply wouldn't do. All-Star Weekend was a huge event in their house, and this year with it being in Cleveland they didn't have to go anywhere. Which meant that they could totally stay up and watch the entire game this year and still be okay for school. And a few of his friends were going to be there tomorrow for the _actual_ All-Star Game.

"Yeah!" CJ nodded seriously. "Daddy win!"

"Please, remember _last year_? Dad's getting old," Bela reminded Max. Even with the fact that she was being cynical, she was still decked out in All-Star gear. She was even wearing her dad's new sneakers that hadn't even hit stores yet.

"Dad was _robbed,_ " Max reminded her.

"Or he's old," Bela teased.

"Daddy old Max," CJ nods and pats his brother's arm. He grins when Max stomps his foot and laughs before running to Bela and hugging her.

"Just you wait he's probably got something _super_ planned, like jumping over a car or something! Or breaking the backboard!"

"He's done that before," Bela reminded him. "He wasn't even supposed to do it this year, he's doing it because Nike asked him too. He thinks he's far too old for this shit."

"Bela! You said bad word!" CJ announced loudly.

"I know," Bela smirked at him and shushed him, "Don't tell mom okay?"

CJ nodded, "Where mommy?"

"He's not too old," Max frowned. "I _believe in dad_."

"Well at least someone does," Bela retorts watching as CJ goes on a quest to find their mom. She follows him absentmindedly, her mom would freak if she let him wander the house and let him get hurt. "She's probably putting on her makeup CJ, why don't you go check her room?"

"How can you not believe in dad?" Max insists.

"I do, I just agree with him, he's too old to be jumping over things to impress the audience. I mean he got injured running last year, he spent most of the season at home getting over it." Bela puffs out her cheeks. "Even _mom_ thinks he's too old Max, I'm sure he's going to do something really cool like usual, and then when he gets home he's going to complain about how his body hurts and then whine about why he was stupid enough to try that."

"Well, _yeah_ , but he's still going to win!"

"I'll be impressed if he doesn't fall flat on his face," Bela shook her head. She loved her father, she did, but she had also witnessed him with crutches and as amusing as that had been, she had to wonder how he was able to walk without killing himself.

CJ toddled out of their parents' bedroom, an upset look on his face. He looked close to tears. "Bela! Mommy _sick_!"

It was enough to snap both of them out their discussion as they moved to go see if their mom was indeed alright. They enter her bedroom and immediately follow CJ into the bathroom to see their mother puking into the toilet. "You okay mom?" Max said as CJ went to go pet their mom on the back.

"Peachy," Santana groaned, she had personally felt like _shit_ all day. She simply wanted to crawl back into bed but Charlie would be home soon to drag them to watch him fall flat on his face. She needed to pull herself together.

Bela winced as her mother puked again, and reached for her phone, "I'll call dad—"

"He'll be here soon, just give me a moment," Santana interrupts. "It's just a stomach bug, I'll be fine in a moment."

"You have bugs in your tummy?" CJ asked taking his hand away and staring at his mom in shock.

Santana sighed, "No CJ I don't have bugs in my tummy," Santana explains but her son kept backing up. He didn't like bugs.

Bela snorted, "Right, I'm going to call dad—" She pauses when her phone buzzes and looks down at it, noting that Max was pulling his phone out of his pocket to check it. "He's outside—did he _really_ need to get a limo? It's so _tacky_."

"I'll go get him," Max said running out of the bathroom.

"Your father likes being tacky sometimes, but he likes being able to stretch out instead of being cramped, that's why he does it." Santana finally pulls back and sits on the cool bathroom tile. There was no way that she could make it through the events tonight. "You guys go with your dad, I'll call Tina and have her meet you there—your aunt Brittany will be there but I don't trust her to watch CJ." Her stomach flips again and she closes her eyes trying to hold it in.

"I'll watch CJ mom," Bela promises she really didn't look so good and she was worried. Her mom _never_ got sick. Her dad did, and he whined about it but she couldn't remember a time where her mom was sick.

"I know you can, but you know how he gets—" Santana groaned and pulled herself to the toilet again.

Bela turns to look away only to see her dad walking into the bathroom with a glass of water, Max hot on his heels, "Mom's sick."

Charlie nods he could see that, "I know, go get ready, I'll take care of this," he promises. When his kids give him a look he frowns, "I do know what I'm doing. Go get ready," Charlie frowns, but Bela finally reaches over and pulls CJ and Max out of the room allowing him to close the door and lock it.

Santana immediately shifts so she can curl up into him as he kneels beside her and takes the glass of water, she waits but when he doesn't even hand her a Gravol she frowns and punches his side weakly. "Where's the Gravol?" It's a whine but she doesn't care she feels disgusting.

Charlie rubs her back gently, wondering how pissed Sue would be if he just bailed so he could take care of Santana. "I didn't know if you were allowed to have any Gravol," Charlie admits after a moment. "I mean I can run out and get you some crackers and ginger ale if you want—"

It takes Santana a moment to catch onto what Charlie's suggesting without saying it, "I'm _not_ pregnant, I got a fucking IUD implanted." She snaps at him. She was terrible when it came to birth control, she had never really liked taking pills getting something implanted until Charlie retired and could finally get the vasectomy was something she looked forward to.

Charlie bites his lip, Santana didn't get anything more than a cold, she certainly didn't get the stomach flu or food poisoning, he personally had no idea how she managed it. But he seemed to catch whatever the kids had. "Alright, I'll get you some Gravol and when we come back I'll make sure to pick up some crackers and soda and whatever else you need."

Santana nods, "I'm sorry I can't see you—what were you planning to do anyway?"

"I don't fucking know," Charlie admits. He had practiced a few dunks but he needed to simply go with the flow this year. Read the crowd. "Should have signed up for the three-point challenge instead."

Santana ran a hand along his cheek, "Don't fall flat on your face."

"I'll try not to," Charlie presses his lips against her temple, before sliding his arms under her and carrying her to her bed.

~O~

Charlie shifted CJ in his arms, his son fast asleep, despite the fact that Max was running around with his new trophy like a maniac. "Max, come on now, CJ's asleep and unless you want to be the one babysitting him all night then shush."

"But it was _awesome_ you jumped over _three mascots_ ," Max stuck out his tongue at Bela. "See _I told you_ dad could do it."

"I had complete and utter faith in him," Bela responds grinning at her dad.

"Thanks Bela!"

"Liar! You thought dad was going to fall flat on his face." Max frowned, and looked at his dad.

Charlie groaned and rubbed CJ's back, "Alright, let me get CJ to bed and then check on your mom before we argue about who had more faith in me."

"It was me!"

"Right Max, it was you," Charlie groaned as he headed up the stairs, he was definitely going to feel the pain in his legs tomorrow. What had he possibly been thinking jumping over people like he was a damned superhero? But at least he had gotten everything Santana would need to feel better. It hadn't felt right just leaving her at home, and it had taken a lot to focus on not smashing his head against the net. "Get ready for bed, I'll come check on you after I'm done checking in on your mom alright?" Charlie said ducking into CJ's room to put his son down. He grunts when CJ continues to cling to his neck despite being on a bed and he tries to gently pry his son off him.

"Mom! Dad won!" Max said excitedly.

"I know, I watched on the television," Santana's voice filtered into CJ's room.

"He said I can keep the trophy in my room!"

Charlie finally manages to untangle CJ from his body before heading out to see Santana in a robe pretending to be interested in Max's excitement. He had won dozens of these dunk contests, this wasn't new by any stretch of the imagination but Max was acting like he had won for the first time. "You feeling better?"

Santana flicks her eyes to Charlie noting the CVS plastic bag in his hands, "A bit. Mostly glad you didn't fall flat on your face."

"Me too," Charlie admits. "I was worried for a moment that I wasn't going to make it."

"But you did," Max reminded him.

"Yes I did, now it's bedtime for you and Bela I'm going to go nurse your mother back to health."

" _Gross_!" Bela called from her room.

"What's wrong with chicken noodle soup?" Charlie questioned.

"She thought you meant sexually," Santana shook her head. Her kids had a perverted mind. She smiles when Charlie makes a face.

"You being sick isn't exactly a turn on, our kids are weird," he murmured into her ear, as he began to follow Santana only to have Max grab his hand.

"But—we have to talk about your All-Star game tomorrow!" Max insisted.

"We will tomorrow, Max your mother needs me to pamper her alright. So I'm going to go do that now." Charlie insists reaching over to mess up Max's hair. "Go to bed, I promise we'll talk about it before the game."

Max was about to protest but one look at his mother who looked green and pale made him reconsider, "Alright—feel better mom. If dad doesn't take good care of you just let me know."

Santana nodded, "Don't worry if your dad doesn't take the best care of me you'll hear about it," she nods and smirks when Charlie rolls his eyes.

"Are you telling me that you want me to carry you to bed because you know I can," Charlie says moving to scoop her up in his arms.

Santana laughed and smacked him, "No. I can walk." She watches as Charlie closes the door behind him as they enter their room. "Gravol and crackers and water."

"Yeah, I got all that," Charlie insists, he had also bought a bunch of other junk like condoms which he wasn't going to use and a pregnancy test. He dumps out the contents on the bed and looks at Santana, finding the pregnancy test. "Go pee on it."

Santana stared at him, and recoils at the object in his hand. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Charlie sighed, "Santana I love you but you are _extremely_ fertile and we've been having sex like six times a week, like nonstop and despite the fact I don't like to think about it, you haven't you know had your period in like two months. So take the test and when we find out that you aren't pregnant I'll make it up to you the only way I know how."

"The only way you know how is through sex, and I don't want you anywhere near me except to cuddle," Santana bitches. She had given thought to this since he'd brought it up because she had the sneaking suspicion that he was right. Her mother was going to _mock_ her. She would never hear the end of it. " _Fine_ , I'll take the damn test but when you're wrong you're going to be my bitch until finals."

Charlie rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Fine, whatever but if you're pregnant—" Santana shot him a withering look which made him rethink the next words out of his mouth. "I'll spend the next few months pampering the shit out of you."

Santana rolled her eyes but stormed into the bathroom and closed the door, she _hated_ peeing on a damn stick. She pulled it out of the box and went to go sit on the toilet.

"I'm here for you love!" Charlie called through the door.

"Shut up, if anything this is _your fault_."

"My fault?"

"Yes your fault," Santana said as she finished up with the pregnancy test. "You need to learn to keep it in your goddamn pants! That's why it's your fault or learn to wrap it up or _something_. I did everything right this time!"

"Well—"

"Shut up," Santana whined as she washed her hands and opened the door watching as he stumbled forward. She just wanted to cuddle and here he was being a dick and informing her that she was _probably_ pregnant. It had been a fucking day! She was allowed to get sick without being pregnant.

Charlie nodded, and immediately wrapped his arms around her holding her against him as they slide to the floor and just sit there. "I'm the worst."

"You are," Santana crinkled her nose he smelled like sweat.

"It's totally my fault," Charlie agreed.

"It is," Santana agreed. She frowns slightly, "What are we going to do if I _am_ pregnant. I mean—"

"I'm here to stay, I mean I put my house on the market and you know—no take backs," Charlie promised. "Burt's a decent guy, so long as it's not game seven of the finals, I'll probably be able to be there this time. It's not something that I would miss for the world."

Santana rolled her eyes, of course Charlie was going to stick around, that wasn't what she was worried about—she pauses, she wasn't worried about Charlie going to fuck other women, she wasn't afraid that they were going to break up again, she wasn't _afraid_ of all that. "I mean the _kids_."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh. Our kids are terrible," Santana reminds him.

"The worst," Charlie agrees. He thinks for a moment. "Okay, this is what we do. We get them a puppy—here me out Santana before you say no. We get them a puppy and while they're all look a puppy—we mention we're going to be adding to our family. Then when they notice, because they will notice that you're pregnant, we'll remind them that we told them about this ages ago and they were super excited."

Santana blinked and stared at Charlie, "My god you're a genius." Charlie smiles at her. "We totally need to write a parenting book for this shit."

"I know right; we're parents of the god damn year. By the way the book should be titled 'Our Kids Are Terrible: The Very Worst.' New York Times best-seller right there."

"We'll make a fortune," Santana agrees before glancing at the stupid pregnancy test. This was the first time she had done _this_ with him. He had never been there for this part of the pregnancy, she had always just told him. She reaches for the test and bites her lip, looking at it. He had gotten the digital one—of course he had he had probably thought the more expensive the more accurate. But she would still need to go and get checked out by a doctor.

 _Pregnant_

"Shit," Santana groaned leaning her head against his chest. Almost immediately she feels his hand on her stomach, and he's rubbing it like he always does. "Charlie—all the pregnancies have been tough—"

"I know. I _know_. I'm worried about you about the baby—I just—I want you to both be okay. More importantly I _need_ you. So know that whatever you decide—I'm _here_ for you."

Santana hesitates for a moment, "You weren't okay with it earlier with CJ."

Charlie was quiet, "We made him _together_ , when you told me I thought it was already decided that we were keeping him. You were excited, and I was excited that we were having another kid. You changing your mind randomly, not because it was hard but because of what happened between us—that hurt, it felt like an attack. Yeah CJ was an accident, all our kids are accidents, that's our thing. And even though our kids are the absolute worst, would you trade them for anyone else's kids or for anything in the world?"

"God no, our kids are perfect angels compared to some of the other shitty kids out there," Santana reminds him. They were just smartasses.

"True."

"But, after this one I'm going to see if I can get them to tie my tubes or something, this can't keep happening and obviously traditional methods don't work for us," Santana says after a long moment. She glances up at him to see if that was acceptable. "I kind of want another girl. I have no idea why, Bela's a nightmare, and I don't think we can afford to feed another male Fabray child."

Charlie laughs, that was a fact, he leans down to kiss Santana's cheek. "We're having a baby."


	72. Chapter 72

"So why are we having this family meeting?" Bela asked studying her mother who was sitting across from them. It was _weird_ , her mother rarely called family meetings and usually when she did it was usually to discuss vacation ideas, or to get the schedule right.

"And where's dad?" Max asked frowning. "This _is_ a family meeting—did you two break up _again_?"

"No. Your father and I are fine." Santana rolls her eyes.

"Are you getting married?" Max presses. When his mom turns to give him a dry look he smiles, "Is that a yes?"

"No. We're not getting married again. Your father hasn't asked and quite frankly I'm too busy working on Brittany's wedding to _deal_ with planning another wedding."

"But you didn't even have a _proper_ wedding, you know your _dream_ wedding," Bela points out. "You don't even have any _pictures_."

Santana groaned, she didn't even know how it had come to this topic. "Right. Your father and I wanted to get married as soon as possible so we went to the courthouse, a magical wedding wouldn't have made a difference. Honestly, your aunt Brittany is probably going to bankrupt Mike with half of her requests, and Mike is still trying to get your father to join in on the dance that they're supposed to learn. I'm happy right now, also this meeting isn't about a _wedding_."

"But I wanted to be dad's best man!"

"You're a boy," Bela points out and Max scowls at her.

"Talk to your father—" Santana shakes her head.

"That's sexist!" Bela insists.

"I don't think you understand what that means," Santana replies flatly. She was now thirteen and now _everything_ was sexist, or racist, or something or rather. She had stopped paying attention, and she _hoped_ that it would go away soon.

"I do; you can't expect dad to do all the work."

"I can and I do, your father's a lazy bum romantically speaking," Santana insists. "Besides if I ask he'll say yes, he's that predictable. It has nothing to do with him being the man and me being a woman. So again _not_ sexist, you're free to propose to your future husband, when you're forty. Also we're getting sidetracked. This isn't about weddings and proposals. We were about to have a very _serious_ discussion on—"

CJ was off the couch first, he hadn't been paying attention to anything until his father had come in with a brown and white puppy in his arms. " _Puppy!_ "

Max was second, "You got us a _puppy_!"

"We got you a puppy," Santana nods, turning to look at Charlie who smiles at her. "This whole family meeting was about a new addition to the family."

"Is it a boy or girl?" Max asked as their father put the puppy on the ground and watched as CJ immediately began to pet him. It was rather rough and Max frowns and pulls his brother back a bit. "Careful CJ, you have to be gentle, see like this," Max demonstrates gently rubbing between the dog's ears.

"Boy," Charlie explained, and moves so he can show CJ how to be gentle with their new puppy. They didn't want any accidents happening and CJ was _rough_. "He's a rescue, so you really need to be careful CJ, he's just a baby. You have to be gentle with babies right?"

CJ nodded and climbed into his father's arms before trying to pet the puppy again, he giggles when it licks his hands. "Daddy! He _licked_ me!"

"Yeah, he did." Charlie flicked a glance up at Santana. This had gone _perfectly_ the kids were suitably distracted. This was such a—

Bela frowned, she had always wanted a puppy but it had been _thirteen_ long years of her mother saying no. No because of all her expensive stuff, no because she wasn't responsible, no because her _father_ wasn't responsible. Her mom wasn't just going to change her mind—so this _had_ to be a distraction. She eyes her mom carefully and then looks at her dad. This _was_ a distraction. "You're _pregnant_ aren't you?"

Santana kept her face absolutely neutral as both Max and CJ turned to their parents, they should have known that Bela was too smart for this. She blamed Charlie for her inquisitive nature, if only he had been a big dumb jock this never would have happened. "Yes I am."

" _Mom_!" Max shouted.

"I don't know why you're blaming me, your father's already taken full responsibility," Santana glances at Max as she threw Charlie under the bus.

" _Dad_! How could you?" Max demanded.

CJ frowned, suddenly taking on Max's outrage at his father. "I _your_ baby."

"Yes, your mom is pregnant, we've known for a week. We thought a puppy would soften the blow a bit, but the thing is our family is going to get a bit bigger. We're going to have a baby; you might have a baby sister or another baby brother. It's happening, you can either be upset or _excited_. CJ you get to be a big brother, which means you'll have to take care of your little sibling. Okay?"

CJ frowned, "I baby."

"Yes CJ, you're _my_ baby boy and you'll always be my baby boy. But you're also a _big boy_ right?" CJ nodded. "And you want to be like Max and Bela right?"

"Don't drag me—"

"Yeah! I wanna be like Ax and Bela!" CJ nods at this.

"Then you're going to need a baby around to protect and play with right? And you can teach her things too," Santana said, influencing her youngest son easily.

CJ thought about it for a moment before nodding, "I wanna baby!"

"Of course you do," Santana smiled at him, and glanced at Charlie.

"You're getting another sibling; you know I won't love you any less. And all this means Max is that I have to win two more championship rings."

Max didn't look pleased with that, "But—"

"And you know what, I think you're a really good brother. I mean look at that, you're smart and you taught CJ how to pet the dog properly, before we could even get to it," Charlie said watching as Max's chest puffed out a bit. "Not to mention, I remember when you got into a fight to defend your sister—you made me proud to be your father. I knew I had raised you right and I know that you're going to be a perfect big brother like you are to CJ and like you will be to the new baby."

Max bit his lip, "Will you still make time for me?"

"Max, _of course_ I will."

"And we'll still play basketball?"

"Of course Max, that's not going to change. We'll still have our Nerf battles, and I'm not going to forget about you okay?"

Max nodded, "Yeah, okay."

Santana relaxed a bit, Charlie had handled it deftly and was now hugging Max tightly. Four kids were a _lot,_ she understood especially given how busy that they were that Max would feel like he'd be neglected, but as long as they could get their shit together they could do this.

Bela frowned, "Wait you're not going to give me any encouragement?"

"You're _thirteen_ Bela, and we got you guys a puppy. What you need me to walk you through having another sibling? You have two, soon to be three," Santana said flatly. "Your world isn't going to _change_ any more than it changed the _last_ two times."

"You got divorced," Bela points out.

"I stand by my statement," Santana shoots back.

Bela rolled her eyes, and looked at her dad but he probably wasn't going to take her side in this, "Fine, but I totally get to name the puppy."

"What? No! I get to name it!" Max insists.

"Or we can _vote_." Santana said putting an end to that before the kids could devolve into an argument. "Then we can go and get food and toys for him. Having a puppy is a _huge_ responsibility, we're going to need to train him, you have to walk him and feed him, and play with him."

"We'll make a chore chart, and we'll work together to make sure that this puppy grows up healthy and happy." Charlie adds. "I think we should name him Bernard."

"No," Bela, Santana and Max said in unison.

"No daddy," CJ said patting his dad on the head, agreeing with everyone else in the room a moment later.

"He looks like a Bruno," Charlie insists after a moment, taking their rejection in stride. He was promptly ignored this time.

~O~

"Do you _have_ to dress like that, people think you're a _weirdo_ ," Bela hisses up at her dad who had on a baggy hoodie, a baseball cap and a large pair of sunglasses. He looked _ridiculous_.

"You're the one dragging me to the mall Bela. I don't want people to swarm me," Charlie responds as he continues to push CJ in the cart that was in the shape of a car. His son loved it.

"Faster!" CJ shouts banging his fist on the plastic steering wheel.

Charlie cocks his brow. Even though CJ couldn't see him, that was no reason to let his little terror get away with murder. "Excuse me?"

"Faster _please_." CJ pleads, a little more mollified.

Charlie rolls his eyes and pushes the stroller in a quick burst that has Max and CJ both squealing in delight. He finally slows down and looks over at Bela, "You do remember that Amazon is a _thing_ , so if you wanted to get more Nerf gear we could have just ordered it online."

Bela rolled her eyes, they weren't there to _buy_ replaceable balls for their nerf guns. She had a plan which involved getting Max in on it, CJ honestly didn't care as long as he had something to munch on. "We're not going to the _toy_ store."

"Bela, you know clothes shopping is your _mother's_ things. She doesn't approve of what I let you guys buy remember?" Charlie sighs, he let Bela pick out a few princess costumes when she was a toddler and suddenly he gets _banned_ from all clothing shopping. As far as he was concerned it was unfair.

"We're not here for clothes either," Max said and nudged his father. "You need to pick out a ring for mom."

"I need to do what now?" Charlie stopped walking and turned to his kids like they had grown another head.

"A _ring_ , an engagement ring dad, try to keep up."

"Plus we have to get mom _flowers_ , and you have to wear something _nice_ ," Max adds, he turns when he notices them making soft pretzels, and pulls out his wallet. "I'll get us some pretzels CJ." He pauses and turns to his dad who immediately hands him a twenty.

Charlie can't decide if he is more amused or annoyed that his kids have decided to stage a romantic intervention. He decides to pick amusement and smirks. "So you guys really thought this through, huh? A ring, flowers, and new clothes?" He shudders to think of wearing a cheap suit from the _mall_ , only a thirteen-year-old would think that was a decent place to buy a suit. Plus, he doubted he could find one that fit him here.

"Yes." Bela nods emphatically. "But we can't do _everything_ for you dad, you need to pick out a nice restaurant, that's _romantic_ , but we'll help you with the proposal."

Charlie glances at Max watching him put the money on the counter, before flicking his eyes back to Bela. "I don't understand what we're doing at the mall though."

"You can't order a ring on _Amazon_."

"I'm pretty sure you can," Charlie shrugs.

"I know that you _can_ , I'm saying that _you_ can't!" Bela insists rolling her eyes at her father. Her mother was right he was _hopeless_. "The diamond place is this way dad, come on."

"I got you the _pizza_ pretzel CJ," Max said proudly. "Careful it's hot though."

" _Pizza_!"

"I thought we agreed that for your mom's sake that we'd all eat healthy."

Max shook his head, "No, _you_ agreed to that, we didn't. Plus, you have to eat healthy," Max reminds him and pats his dad's stomach. "Now where's the jewelry store?"

"Down the hall on the left," Bela replies.

"I want to point out—"

"Don't you want to marry mom?" Max demands.

"Yes but—"

"There are no _buts_ dad, that's how you got into this mess in the first place. And that's why we have to bail you out."

Charlie blinked and smirked lecherously, "Well, no your mom's butt is the reason you three all exist."

"Stop being so gross dad!" Bela snapped at him whacking his side.

"Come on dad, I'm trying to eat," Max agreed and making a face. "I don't want to think about mom's butt."

"I do," Charlie sang and grinned.

Bela decided to ignore him for now, they needed to find the most expensive ring, and one that was bigger than Aunt Brittany's so that their mom would know how much their dad loved her. She pulls her father into the Kay Jewelers store and grins at all of the shiny glimmering pieces carefully encased in glass displays. She immediately motions for the sales assistant. "What's the most expensive diamond ring you have?"

"Bela—" Charlie groaned.

"Dad you have to show mom how sorry you are and women _love_ diamonds. Plus, it has to be bigger than Aunt Brittany's ring."

"Yeah, Aunt Brittany's ring is _massive._ You can't be cheaper than Mike." Max nods agreeing with Bela. His dad was the _star_ , he was an All-star, he had _two_ championship rings. He couldn't be cheap.

"I have _three_ kids, you two hit me up for money like every day. Mike doesn't have any children I can afford to be cheaper than Mike."

"Don't you love mom?" Bela frowns, it seemed like their father was waffling on whether he wanted to propose or not.

"Of course I do—" Charlie began in an exasperated tone.

"Good, now that we agree. The most expensive ring you have in your store." Bela smiled and looked at the sales assistant who looked amused at the interplay. She could also see the dollar signs in her eyes, she was probably going to make a lovely commission.

"I pity the boy that has to buy _you_ a ring." Charlie mutters. There's no way he's buying some department store ring that's overpriced and probably doesn't have the best quality. No, he's going to find a design, maybe stop by Tiffany's next time he was in New York and get her something that was worthy of their fresh start together. But it didn't hurt to indulge his children a little.

"Sparkly." CJ adds definitively, as if that was ever a question.

Bela frowned, it looked really pretty and it had the size that she wanted, "How much is it?"

"Eight thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-nine dollars." She looks Charlie over judgmentally, "We also have in-store financing options available."

Charlie shakes his head. He's no sucker, in-store financing was probably at an enormous interest rate. Santana would _kill_ him if he did something that stupid. But he also didn't want to burst his kids' bubble. "I see—anything else that doesn't look _gaudy_?" Maybe at the very least he could get some ideas for what to look for. Something like this when he was just starting out probably would have been acceptable, but _now_? When he had millions of dollars in the bank, he might as well buy some cubic zirconium and call it a day.

"Dad!"

"Bela. When would your mother ever wear this? I want her to say yes, not ask me what the hell I was thinking."

"I like it," Max nods looking at his dad. "Besides dad mom always says it's the thought that matters."

Charlie closed his eyes, and thought about the perfect way to get his kids to drop it. "It is, when it comes to _you_ buying her gifts, I'm trying to get her to marry me again, so I can't just get her any old ring or the first one we see. Your mom—deserves the very best."

"She does," Bela and Max agree.

"Right, besides I can't get your mom a ring now anyway. With her pregnancy, her finger size changes a lot, and I really _don't_ want them to cut it off her finger."

"You can't wait until the baby is born!" Bela was horrified.

"No one said that I was going to—I just have no idea if your mom _wants_ to marry me again."

"Why wouldn't she want to marry you, you're—"

Charlie's hand immediately shot out and covered Max's mouth, "Yes, I know who I am. But if you think that impresses your mom then you're sorely mistaken. I asked your mom to marry me on the most important night of my life like fourteen years ago. Besides Brittany will shank me if I rain on her parade with Mike."

"Mom doesn't want a _big_ wedding, just something small, she told us," Max points out licking his father's hand and grinning when he pulls his hand away, before going back

"She told you that she wants to get married?" Charlie asks.

"Well—" Max began, trying to remember if his mom had indeed given a definitive statement about whether she would say yes.

"Yeah, she said she wanted to get married. She said she wasn't going to ask you because she knew that you'd said yes and that she had certain expectations from you since you're romantically challenged," Bela interrupts, her dad would hesitate instead of acting when he was sure their mom would say yes.

Charlie blinked, that did actually sound like something Santana would say. He had been unsure if this was the right move for them, they were happy right now and Santana hadn't dropped any hints or anything of the sort. Then there was the _baby_ to think about, they were probably going to need a bigger place as well, he hadn't really given it _that_ much thought. "How mad would your mother be if I took you guys to New York right now?"

"Are we going to visit Aunt Quinn and Rachel and see Beth?" Max asked.

Charlie bit his lip, Quinn would probably be the best person to ask, she had helped him _last_ time. She and Santana had similar tastes. "Sure why not? Let's go—don't tell your mother."

"She's going to kill you dad," Max pointed out and patted his arm gently. "Let's go."

"You should probably _tell_ her before you take us across state lines," Bela pointed out.

"Right, I should probably tell her," Charlie mused before pulling out his phone and texting Santana that he was taking the kids to New York. He probably had a few minutes before Santana texted back—

 _No_

Charlie stared at the text and frowned before deciding to ask her why.

 _It's a school night Charlie, you can't go gallivanting off around the country with them on a whim. Why the fuck do you want to drag our kids to fucking New York anyway. Quinn and Rachel need to hire a fucking nanny to take care of their demon child they can't keep asking you, like you're some baby whisperer or something._

"Well, your mom said no. It's a school night, so I'm going to take you three home and _then_ go to New York."

"See, told you we shouldn't have told her," Max bitched at Bela.

"You can't go to New York without us," Bela says after a moment. "We need to make sure that it's the right ring dad."

"Yeah, beside mom will be suspicious, if you suddenly need to go to New York without us, and she'll want to go with us. You need a _plan_ ," Max reminds him.

"You're right, Quinn needs to be in on this and Rachel loves poorly thought out plans. We'll get them involved. Way to go guys you're all brilliant." Charlie winces when he notices copious amounts of pizza sauce around CJ's lips as he continues to tear into his pizza pretzel. Well they couldn't all be geniuses.


	73. Chapter 73

Call it mother's intuition, her Mexican third-eye, or perhaps general paranoia, but Santana Lopez generally had a good idea when her children were plotting something. They took after their father, in a way, they got super excited and they let things slip, that and Max and Bela generally had _hushed_ conversations with each other while occasionally shooting her looks, to make sure she couldn't hear them. At least CJ wasn't plotting, he seemed to be more interested in flipping through his book and eating the dry honey nut cheerios on her lap. One day, she'd have to worry about what she imagined was a very devious mind joining in with the duo.

Though even if Bela and Max were plotting something, the blame would rest solely at Charlie's feet. She glances over at her boyfriend who was currently asleep in his seat, the result of having an epic game the night before. He had given her some phony story about Quinn and Rachel being in dire need and how he needed to a photoshoot. He had never been a very good liar, but Sue had confirmed that there was a photoshoot in New York for him. At least they'd be touching down soon and it was only a day trip. "So what are we doing today? Going to the zoo? Doing some shopping?" Santana asks looking at her older children.

"Zoo!" CJ shouted immediately. "I wanna see the tiger!" He says looking at his mom. "And—and a _monkey_!"

"What about a panda?" Santana questions watching as Charlie stirred and his eyes opened to look at her. "We're going to the zoo."

"We've been to the zoo before mom. I want to go with dad," Bela said with a shrug.

Santana narrowed her eyes, they were _definitely_ planning something. "Really you want to spend your time watching your father have his picture taken instead of hitting up the zoo with me and your brothers?"

"I want to go with dad too," Max added with a nod.

Max following Charlie around was nothing new and she had gotten used to the fact that Max loved his dad. But if she had been suspicious before, it had just gone up ten-fold. They'd been to New York several times before, and the kids had always kept close to her. "Okay, what's going on." Bela and Max stared at her blankly and she scowled before reaching over and smacking Charlie's arm. "I know you're awake, what the hell are you planning."

"Your kids think I'm romantically challenged, so they want to dress me up and scope out locations for me to take you on a date for tonight," Charlie responded with a yawn.

Santana scowled at him, the kids thought it was weird if they went on a date, so he was obviously _lying_ , and this was supposed to be a _day_ trip. "If you're not going to be honest with me then _never mind_ ," she snaps at him and turns to Max, Bela wouldn't break as long as Charlie was lying. "Maximus Esteban Fabray-Lopez."

Max shifted uncomfortably, he didn't like when his parents used his full name. It meant that he was in trouble, but his dad had told the truth, more or less. It had surprised him, "What dad said?"

" _Maximus_ ," Santana frowned.

Max shifted uncomfortably and looked over at his dad who winked at him discreetly, he wasn't going to get in trouble for telling the truth. "What dad said, _honest_."

"Well, I hope you and Bela like being _grounded_ when we both get back to Ohio," Santana snaps at Max before turning to look at Charlie. "Don't think that I won't think of a suitable punishment for you." Santana sniffed and cuddled CJ, he was the only one on her side.

Charlie flashed his kids a small smile, they had known that there would be consequences but this was still good, once Santana saw that they weren't lying they were all in the clear. They just needed to put up with Santana being a tiny bit upset with them all day, and quite frankly checking in on them.

~O~

Quinn paces in the lobby where Charlie is _'supposedly'_ having his photo shoot. She was already annoyed that Santana had dragged her wife and daughter off to the zoo, but standing around and waiting to figure out what Charlie was up to only made it worse.

She thought when Charlie and Santana got divorced she was _done_ helping her crazy sister-in-law figure out what was going on inside Charlie's head.

Because the short answer was, as _always_ , absolutely nothing.

"Psst, Quinn," Charlie called out from where he was currently hiding, with both Bela and Max. "Is she gone?"

"For fucks sake, _yes_. Now why did you make me _lie_ to your ex-wife?" Quinn demanded crossing her arms over her chest. She didn't particularly care that there were children about, with a mother like Santana cursing was probably common place in their house.

"Dad needs to get to Tiffany's, he's got an appointment, then he has to get his suit done so he looks impressive for mom and then he's going to propose to mom," Max explained for Quinn's benefit.

Quinn stared at Max for a moment before looking at Charlie, "I don't understand, you two are back together?" Charlie nods, "And you're proposing even though it really hasn't been that long?"

"Yes, mom's pregnant," Bela explained as if it were obvious.

Quinn stared at her brother who flashed her a smile, "How the fuck—don't answer that I don't want to hear about what you and Santana did. What were you thinking? You already have three kids."

"That's what I said," Max muttered only to get a swift smack upside the head by his dad. "But I'm totally looking forward to a new screaming bundle of joy."

"Brittany's going to _kill_ you," Quinn said after a moment shaking her head.

"I know, I don't care. Santana wants to get married, we'll probably do the whole going to court thing like we did before. I don't think Santana wants a huge wedding, something about how it's a waste of money to spend that much money for one day."

Quinn stared at Charlie for a moment before motioning for her niece and nephew to come towards her, "You do know that your father isn't that smart right?"

"Yeah," Bela nods. "But it's _super_ important they get married before mom realizes that she can do better."

" _Hey_!"

"It's true, Dad." Max agrees.

"I'm glad to see my own kids have so much faith in me."

Quinn sighed, "Fine, I'll help but I can't spend the entire day doing this, I do have a job to do. So I'll help you with the ring, call my assistant to find you a decent place to eat or a garden or something but you're on your own for the clothes."

"I already have something for clothes. Santana won't be able to take her hands off me."

Quinn shuddered, "Does he say stuff like that a lot?"

"Yeah, we already know that he's a weirdo," Bela adds but tugs on her dad's arm, "Come on, we _need_ to get everything done and you don't want to be late for your appointment. I did some research, so I know what we should ask for."

"So you're not going to walk in and ask for the most expensive thing in the store?" Charlie questions watching as Bela flushes.

"I've never done this before, what's your excuse?" Bela snaps back.

"Engagement rings are silly, and how much I spend is not an indication of how much I love your mother," Charlie responds with a sniff.

~O~

Nearly eighty thousand dollars later, Charlie ignored the shocked look from his kids and sister and offered them his own smug grin. "What? I told you I knew what I was doing."

"It's so perfect." Bela gushed. Her mom was going to love it.

"I have been buying your mother jewelry for longer than either of you kids have been alive. I would hope, by now, I had some things figured out."

"Well maybe you aren't _hopeless_ after all." Quinn admits. "But I already have three texts from Santana asking me to check and make _sure_ you really are at a photoshoot."

Charlie grins, unsurprised. "She really hates being out of the loop."

"So what's next, dad?" Max is nearly bouncing with excitement. The tide had subtly turned during the ring shopping expedition, from the kids telling him what to do based on the ridiculous rom-coms Bela had seen to letting him guide the plan.

"Next, I go to my suit guy, and get my hair done and a proper shave. You know how your mom is about my stubble. Then we go pick her up at the zoo with CJ and we go have dinner together. Then I ask her once the moment is right."

"Are you going to have the restaurant put her ring in her dessert?" Bela practically squeals at the idea.

"No." Charlie says definitively. "First of all, that ring cost an arm and a leg. I'm not letting it out of my sight until it's on your mom's hand. But also, your mom will think that's tacky."

"It's romantic."

"It's weird." Charlie shakes his head. "But, what will happen is that you're going to go with your aunt Quinn to get something nice to wear, and I'll take Max with me so he can get a proper suit and get a haircut. You'll probably be done before we are, so we'll meet you on the way alright?"

"Are we going to get the same thing?" Max asked.

"No, but you'll have something similar, maybe a dark grey, or a blue. Your mom likes that."

"You do realize that Santana is grossly underdressed right?" Quinn points out hating to burst Charlie's bubble. "You can't take her to some random upper class restaurant while she's dressed to go to the zoo with CJ."

"I know. But she's also got CJ who will have fallen asleep as soon as he got to see the monkeys which means she has several hours to kill and she's pissed at me for keeping a secret."

"So you think she's what going to go shopping and get some fancy clothes when she has your toddler who still can't seem to keep the food in his mouth? All I'm saying is that you should dress up, it's not like Santana's wearing _mom_ clothes. She's still better dressed than all of you, but you don't need a suit. Just you know dress like you're sitting on the bench, sports jacket, dark jeans better shoes and you'll be fine."

"Well then where should we go?"

Quinn jots down the name and cross streets of an up and coming family restaurant. "Go here."

"So when will you propose to her?" Max asks scratching his head.

Charlie shrugged, he honestly had no idea. Santana hadn't been thrilled by the huge proposal he had done last time, something quiet and intimate would probably be best. It was also for the best _not_ to do it in front of the kids. He didn't want Santana to feel any pressure in saying yes and with the kids present she would feel it. "Not in front of you kids. I want your mom to say yes because she wants to be married again not because you're there and she doesn't want to embarrass me or something."

"I don't think mom has a problem doing that in front of us," Bela frowns. "We could help."

"I'd rather you didn't. Not for this anyway," Charlie reaches out and pats Bela's arm. "This is something that I need to do with your mom. Besides Bela, I've done this before and she said yes, I know how to talk to do this."

"He says, not telling you that he threw up like three times beforehand and called me nearly in tears freaking out. 'What if she says no! What will I do? Where do we go from there?' So don't let this cool demeanor fool you, he's probably feeling sick on the inside," Quinn piped up throwing her brother under the bus.

Charlie flipped her off, "Next time you freak the fuck out over stupid shit when it comes to Beth you're on your own."

"Really you nearly cried?"

"Your mother was a lot scarier back then," Charlie nods. "After she's had you kids she's mellowed out a bit more. You have no idea how many times I had to deal with your mother threatening to go all Lima Heights on my 'pasty white ass'. Or that very weird year where she said she had razor blades all up in her hair."

Max's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Yeah, it was _terrifying_ , but I loved her. I loved her more than I loved anyone else in the world. I mean me and your mom, it's like—peanut butter and jelly we just go together." Charlie smiles, he hoped that was still the case. He hoped that she would say yes. He hadn't been ready to pop the question yet, he was unsure if Santana would even want to marry him again but Santana had been dropping hints to the kids, so he'd definitely take the damn chance.

~O~

Santana lifts a sleeping CJ out of the cab, arriving at the restaurant only a few minutes after Charlie and the older kids. She _knows_ she's in an awful mood, but her feet hurt and her back is sore from chasing CJ throughout the entire zoo. She eyes her ex-husband and kids warily, instantly taking note of Max and Charlie's fresh haircuts. But Charlie and the kids are in deep conversation, whispering conspiratorially and she _knows_ something is going on.

"At least someone got to pamper himself today," she snarks.

Charlie snaps around to face her, wordlessly taking CJ out of her arms with a charming smile. "I had to look good for the shoot today. I thought it'd be easier to kill two birds with one stone since Max's hair was all over the place too."

Santana narrows her eyes. The explanation is perfect, but it's just a little _too_ perfect to get past her Mexican third eye. "You also bought Max a sport jacket I see," she says glancing at Bela, she had definitely not been wearing that outfit either. "So this is your big plan?"

Charlie smiled at her and leaned in to kiss her forehead, "Well, Quinn wasn't going to watch our demon kids for us for me to surprise you with a nice dinner, but she did pick this family restaurant for us to go to. They have a kids table and a decent selection of wine."

"Magic words," Santana mumbles moving past him to enter the restaurant. She could use with a tiny bit of wine, she didn't want to become a sobbing drunk or anything but she wanted to feel the pleasant buzz and maybe order Charlie to massage her shoulders, or her feet. She'd do that on the private jet that he had chartered. "So that's _all_ you did today?"

"No. I took them to the Disney store, and the Lego store and Niketown, as well as a bit of shopping for some clothing as you can see," Charlie winced when Santana scowled at him.

"So you got to be the _fun_ one, and stuck me with the toddler?"

"I would have taken CJ too but you're the one that suggested the zoo," Charlie responds with a shrug. "Though we probably would have come back with _far_ more toys than we were supposed to. So let's eat, I'm starving."

Santana glanced at her kids, it did seem that they had done exactly what Charlie had said they had done. The whole thing was a bit to convenient for her tastes, he was _hiding_ something from her. She just wasn't sure what and the kids seemed to be _firmly_ on his side. She throws her hands up in the air, "The food had _better_ be good."

" _Hungry_." CJ agrees waking up a bit and curling up in his dad's arms some more.

"Of course you are." Charlie rolls his eyes, leading his family into the restaurant. The few brief minutes he had before Santana arrived allowed him to at least ask for the kids to get a separate table and the hostess quickly leads them to a booth and a nearby table.

"You want the kids to eat alone?" Santana looks at Charlie like he's lost his mind. Her kids were terrors on a good day, but abandoning them in a fancy restaurant seemed like the worst idea he'd ever had.

"We can see them just fine." Charlie rolls his eyes despite himself, gingerly settling CJ in a high chair.

"Daddy _no,_ I'm a big boy!" CJ demands, he didn't use a high chair anymore at home.

"Right, I forgot," Charlie says pulling his son up and placing him on a seat beside Max, and pats CJ's head. "Max help him order," Charlie says and immediately heads back to Santana a smile on his face as he looks to slip into the booth beside her.

Santana immediately points to the seat across from her. "Over there."

"But—"

"Are you going to tell me what you did today?"

"Well—"

"Sit over there," Santana repeated with an irritated huff picking up her menu. "I don't want to cuddle with you if you're not being honest."

Charlie sighed and reached into his pocket, touching the box in his hand. She was annoyed with him, he knew she didn't really like surprises but all he needed to do was make her laugh at him, and things would be okay. "Do you honestly think that I did something terrible with the kids?"

"I don't know, you won't tell me," Santana frowns and taps on the most expensive wine on the menu.

"We killed someone and buried the body. Max was of course a bit squeamish but you should have seen our daughter, she took charge of the situation. Takes after you. That's why we had to change our clothes, and that's why I took Max to get his haircut," Charlie shakes his head.

"Charlie, if you ever accidentally killed someone the first person you would call is _Sue_. The second person that you would call is me, and we'd figure something out together. You wouldn't just take the kids and bury a body, what's wrong with you? A body can be found. Even _Bela_ knows that. I'd be furious at you if your panic caused our kids to become accessories after the fact."

"You know I find it _incredibly_ sexy when you talk to me like that," Charlie grins.

"I know, but you're not actually getting any until you tell me what you were up to all day," Santana responds before tapping on the meal that she wanted to eat.

Charlie smiled, it wasn't the _perfect time_ but—

"CJ stop it!" Max shouted as CJ threw a crayon at his face.

"Hungry Ax. I _hungry_!" CJ shouted, tears forming in his eyes.

Bela scowls, looking over at her parents and tries to keep the boys in line. "Max, leave him alone. He's just grumpy."

Santana rolls her eyes and moves to defuse the situation but Charlie gently pushes her back. "I've got it."

He plucks the second crayon out of CJ's fist before his son can strike again and ushers CJ quickly outside.

"I _hungry!_ " CJ wails again as if his message hadn't been clear.

There is nothing else to do but let him ride out this temper tantrum. "Look buddy, I know you're hungry." Charlie soothes, rubbing light circles on CJ's back. "I am too. The food is going to come soon. But I need you to be a good boy. Okay?"

" _Daddy_."

"CJ. I have to ask your mom an important question, okay? I'm going to ask her to marry me. Then—" He pats his pocket just for his own peace of mind that the ring is still there, "—then the food will come and you can eat everything you want."

"Sa'ghetti?" CJ brightens at the prospect.

"Sure."

"And ice cream." CJ says definitively as if it is a negotiation.

Charlie chuckles to himself and runs his hand along the back of his head. He should expect no less from his and Santana's child. Glancing over at his ex-wife-slash-soon-to-be-fiancée he feels the tension dissipate a little. Unfortunately, that small lapse is just enough for CJ to see the blue box in Charlie's pocket and slip it out without detection.

With a sigh, Charlie turns back to his youngest, dismissing the way CJ holds his hands behind his back like he has some sort of secret. "Fine. We can have ice cream too. So can you color while you wait for the food to come?"

CJ nods slowly and Charlie is in too much of a rush to think of how uncharacteristic the reply is from his son. Instead, he adds, "And don't throw crayons at your brother."

"Sorry." CJ offers quickly.

Satisfied, Charlie leads them back to their tables, patting himself on the back for the stellar parenting as he tries to get himself back in the zone. None of this is going the way he wanted it to, but he could still salvage it.

Fate, though had other plans and as soon as CJ gets close enough he sprints toward Santana. Charlie's eyes go wide and his stomach falls at the sight of the small box in CJS hands as he slips into the booth next to Santana.

"Daddy got you a toy!' CJ squeals thrusting the box at Santana who seems too stunned to do anything.

"What?" She sputters.

" _Hungry._ " CJ repeats as if that is the only explanation he needs.

"Shit, CJ go sit with Bela and Max." Charlie practically throws CJ at Bela and slides in across from Santana who is still staring at the box. "I'm sorry, this isn't how I wanted this to go."

"Is that what I think it is?"

Charlie nods slowly. Santana hasn't made any move toward the Tiffany's box and he's not sure if that is a good thing or a terrible thing. But he is already this far in and he might as well try to finish it. "The kids thought I needed help so today, all of this was their attempt to help."

"Clearly."

"Bela dragged me to the mall jewelry store and asked for the most expensive thing, so at least we've taught our daughter something. I wasn't going to get you anything less than the best." He taps the box between them nervously. "I don't want to push you, and if your answer is 'not yet' then I get it. It's okay, I love you and I'll try again while you're in labor. When you threaten to kill me once I ask, I'll wait until just after the baby is born so you're all emotional and you'll say yes and I'll say no take backs, and when you come to, you'll smack me but that's okay because you already said yes." Charlie babbles, wincing at the word salad that had just come from his mouth. Santana was staring at him like he had grown another head. He was sure he had seen Bela smack her head against the table in the corner of his eye.

Santana stares at the box for a moment, "You know I don't like surprises."

"I know," Charlie bit his lip.

"Was there even a photoshoot?" Santana narrows her eyes at him. He was sweating now, the nervous look on his face was adorable.

"No, I lied," Charlie winces this was not going well.

"I noticed, and you got _your_ kids to lie for you too. Is that going to be a thing you do?"

"I'm not going to lie to you again. I'm not going to betray your trust—"

"Well you certainly aren't starting this off well," Santana interrupts finally tearing her eyes off the box and looking at him directly.

Charlie thinks about what Santana had just said and smiles hopefully, "Does that mean yes?"

"You haven't asked me a question yet, you've just sort of babbled about babies and labor and shit," Santana reminds him crossing her arms over her chest.

"Are you going to say yes?" Charlie presses.

"I shouldn't," Santana says after a long moment. "I'm still annoyed with you."

"I know, I'm sorry," Charlie says immediately.

"Are you _really_ sorry, or are you just saying that?"

" _Santana,_ " He whines like an overgrown version of CJ. "Are you going to say yes or not?"

"You aren't going to find out unless you ask." She teases. There is no reality in which she would say no to him, but she gets a sort of perverse pleasure out of making him squirm.

"Fine. Will you marry me?" He pulls the box open to display the ring that practically glows to sweeten the deal.

"Pretty sure you're supposed to be on one knee while you ask." Santana smirks, not looking at the ring.

He groans but slides out of the booth, tugging her to the edge as he gets down on one knee. "There. Will you marry me _now_?"

"Again."

" _Santana_ , what was wrong with it this time?" He huffs exasperated. He _knows_ she is messing with him but he will do whatever it takes to get her to say yes.

"No. You have to ask if I'll marry you _again._ "

He rolls his eyes but can't stop a smile from spreading along his face. "Santana Lopez, love of my life, mother of my children, will you marry me _again_?"

Santana smiles, "I'll think about it."

" _Mom_!" Max shouts horrified.

"What? I said I would think about it," Santana shrugs, finally taking the box from Charlie's hand and studying the ring. It was a round brilliant white diamond encircled by a row of pink and white bead-set diamonds with a diamond band. She touches it gently and glances at Charlie frowning slightly. She liked expensive things, but she liked buying herself expensive things, she didn't like others doing it for her. "How much did this cost you?"

"Under a hundred grand?"

" _Charlie_."

"It wasn't the most expensive thing at the store Santana, but I knew it would look absolutely stunning on your finger, I got the bonus from Nike for the Dunk Contest, I've gotten a bunch of bonuses lately, so it's not going to break the bank or anything."

"You're an idiot."

"An idiot in love."

"I should say no."

"You won't." He grins, feeling more confident.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "I guess you're right." She pats the seat beside her, "You can get up now, and I give you permission to cuddle me now, after putting this on my finger."

Charlie laughs and slips into the booth beside Santana and carefully takes the ring and slides it onto her finger before bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it. "I love you."

"I know," Santana said leaning against him. "Good thing I love you too, or this whole thing could have gone a lot worse."

"So when's the wedding?" Bela asks, she was unsure as to what she had just witnessed but her mom was wearing the ring which was a good thing right?


	74. Chapter 74

Santana opened her eyes, from where she was curled up on her bed, she was surprised that Charlie had managed to slip inside the house without waking up any of the children or the dog which seemed to enjoy splitting his time between the children's rooms. She shifts on the bed as he drops his duffel bag on his side of the bed, he'd probably trip over it in the morning. He falls face first onto the bed. He smelled like expensive champagne and she could see a stray piece of confetti. "Congrats, three rings. Two more and you'll be in consideration for the greatest of all time."

Charlie groaned, into his pillow, everything hurt and he had to go do talk shows and the like in the morning. "Tired. Go away."

Santana scowls a bit before smirking as she runs her hand along her stomach, "You know who's tired? The mother of your delinquent children. CJ bit a child in his class today. And you owe me a foot rub. So hop to it."

Charlie groaned, but did as she asked forcing himself up so he could rub Santana's feet, "You're a cruel mistress you know that?"

"Well, someone has to punish you for disappointing Max, he was looking forward to you winning the championship _here_ in Cleveland. You know he was going to scream himself hoarse for you." Santana hummed in pleasure as Charlie begun to work his magic on her feet. If the whole NBA thing hadn't worked she would have insisted that he share this gift with the world.

Charlie scrunched up his face, "I know. Probably for the best that I won tonight then, because you'll be off to Louisiana in a few days leaving me with the demon children, for two _whole_ months!" Charlie sighed loudly. It was going to be the worst. Two whole months where he couldn't see or touch Santana. He smiles when Santana groans under his touch, "You know, we could just dump them with your parents and Tina for a few weeks. I'd much rather be around you for two months pampering the shit out of you."

"Abandoning your children is _frowned_ upon," Santana reminded him flexing her foot a bit and wiggling the other one so he could get to it.

"Yes but the _baby_."

Santana gently swatted him with her foot, her pregnancy had been going well, sure she could no longer see her toes anymore, and walking around was a pain in the ass that hurt her lower back, but it was _easy_ this time. Bela and Max were helping out more, CJ just sort of looked at her like she was an alien, ever since they had told him that the baby was inside her. He seemed to think that she had eaten the baby. "My blood pressure is fine, I haven't even been put on _bed rest_ , and all I'm doing is judging houses. I only film three days out of the week. If the schedule wasn't so spotty and I didn't have to pay for it, I would just fly home during those times.

"We can afford it," Charlie reminded her.

"Your apartment is still on the market Charlie, and yeah we can afford it but that's not us. Well it shouldn't be us, we don't want the kids becoming ungrateful little shits. I don't think they understand the value of money. You need to stop handing them cash whenever they ask for it, and we need to start being firm with their allowance. The only person we should be buying shit for is CJ, but the moment he turns five we get him working." Their finances weren't bad, once Charlie retired they could continue their lifestyle for the rest of their lives. "Besides, you need to convert the upstairs guest room into a nursery."

"Why don't we just move CJ over to the guest room and make his room into the nursery? I mean we probably should figure out what to do soon. I need to be able to put my clothes somewhere."

Santana bit her lip, there was something that she had been debating with Sam and with HGTV. Charlie hadn't been in the right headspace to deal with new information or to think things through, not while he was in playoff mode. But now that he had won his third championship and was probably in a fairly good mood all things considered she could finally bring it up. And if she _really_ needed to warm him up to the idea sex wasn't exactly off the table. "When I bought this place, it really was only supposed to hold me and the three kids the guest bedrooms were for when my parents and your siblings showed up. I mean what are we going to do for Christmas? Or Thanksgiving? Or when Brittany and Mike fight and she shows up randomly? Plus, my parents already have a bag ready to move in when the baby is born."

"We can afford a bigger place, I can call my real estate agent and talk to them about—"

"I was thinking about _building_ you know so it's to _our_ specifications." Santana said carefully studying his face to see how this was going.

Charlie scrunches up his face, "I don't—"

"Think about it, you can finally get a massive tub with _jets_ that suits you, maybe a spa room, a home gym like our home in LA. A closet for your shoes—" Santana continued cutting him off.

"I'm not against building our dream home, but there is _no way_ that it will be ready before the baby is ready," Charlie points out. "Also are you _sure_ you want it to be in Cleveland?"

Santana hesitated, Charlie had signed a four-year contract and he had a full year left before the player option kicked in. "You want to leave Cleveland?"

"No, unless you want to move. Burt promised me that I'll have a contract till I retire, and if I continue to play like this and _win_ I'm looking at another max contract according to Sue. I won't take it, I'll take a slight pay cut and a shorter contract with a player option so Burt can continue to invest in the team. Sue is going to make sure there is a no-trade clause in my contract."

Santana nods. They had never talked about his retiring and she knew it was a sore subject, he _liked_ playing basketball. He didn't want anyone to jinx him. "So you'll be playing—"

Charlie shrugged, "I'm retiring within four years or when my body gives out whichever comes first. I feel _old_ , and the recovery time is starting to get a bit longer. I can't keep playing like this and trying to keep up with the younger guys. Besides, I figure you'll need me around when Bela turns sixteen and decides that she'll be exactly like you at sixteen—" Charlie stopped talking and his eyes widened. "Which _can't_ happen. Besides, Max's body will start going through the changes and if he's anything like me—"

Santana snorts, out of all her children she was the most worried about Max. He would mellow out with age, especially with Charlie around but she didn't want her son to be taken in by some woman. "Right. But back to the point Charlie," Santana patted the space on the bed beside her and watches as Charlie plants himself in the spot beside her and reaches to touch her belly. She smacks his hand out of habit, she _hated_ when he did that. It made her feel fat. "I was thinking that this could be like a new beginning for us—"

"And you want to put it on television?" Charlie surmised.

"Well, I figured we could get Sam to be the contractor, he's creative and you know the house would get done well and up to code. HGTV would offset some of the cost of the house, but the catch is—"

Charlie made a face, "I'd _have_ to be in it."

Santana immediately reached over to run her hand along his abs, she could still get what she wanted if she played her cards right. "The kids will need to show up for proof that we've managed to keep them alive. _But_ mostly you'll be deciding what you want, I will promptly ignore you and continue with my design ideas."

Charlie grumbled, he knew what Santana was doing but she had overestimated how tired he was. "Great, everyone will think you wear the pants in the relationship."

"I _do_ wear the pants in this relationship."

"I know that, you know that, but does everyone in the world need to know that?" Charlie grumbled.

Santana grinned, "You're right, but honestly we'll compromise, it's supposed to be _our_ dream house, not just mine. So I mean unless you have a silly idea when it comes to the colors or materials or you're being cheap, we'll decide on what we want together."

"I want a man-cave. You know pool table, bar sound system in the walls—"

Santana opened her mouth to shoot him down before deciding not to. He'd definitely go for it if he thought she was going to give him a bar and a place where he could have all of his stuff. "We need to think about the bar after Bela's little party last year," she reminds him.

Charlie pauses and nods, she was right. They couldn't just have a bar lying around loaded up with alcohol. "We can keep the alcohol locked up, we don't really _need_ that much to begin with. If we're having guests, we can serve them beer and what not."

"So it's not going to be used?"

"It will be, but not for alcohol."

Santana blinked, there was an odd grin on his face and she rolls her eyes. "I am not having sex with you on top of the bar. That's how I got this damn baby inside me."

"We've never had sex on a bar before. So I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, you got pregnant because your IUD wasn't inserted properly, which wasn't my fault. Also I was thinking of a juice bar, smoothie bar. Or ice cream!"

Santana sighed, she had lost him to plans about making an ice cream bar. The kids would love it of course, "Should I get you one of those pipes that blows bubbles as well?" she asked in a mocking tone.

"Those are real?" Charlie reaches for her tablet. "I want one!"

"You're such a child," Santana teased normally she would roll on top of him and make him prove that he was an adult, but she felt like such a whale. "I'm not sure _if_ I should leave the kids here alone with you."

Charlie laughed, "That makes two of us. Take me with you. Our kids are the worst," Charlie agrees moving his hand to Santana's stomach. "Except for this one, this one hasn't been hell on your body like the other three were."

Santana nods, this much was true. She wasn't quite sure what that meant, but perhaps they were getting lucky with an angel child. They had wanted to be surprised when the baby was born, "So have you thought about names?"

"Alex Fabray?" Unisex names seemed to be the only thing Santana didn't shoot down immediately.

Santana thought about it, it wasn't a terrible name, but she had named CJ without consulting him and she felt a bit guilty about it. "We'll put that on the list."

"Good now can I finally sleep? I have to be up later for radio interviews and do a bunch of appearances," Charlie grumbled. Why wasn't he old enough where it was acceptable to be a grouchy old man?

Santana rolled her eyes, and adjusts so she can curl into him, feeling him wrap his arm around her. It wouldn't be long now before the kids decided to make their presence felt.

~O~

A blast of water hit Charlie square in the face causing him to sputter as his eyes opened and he jumped from the bed, "The _hell_!" He's met with laughter from his three demonic children as he rubs his face. Santana had been gone for only two months and it had already devolved into a Lord of the Flies scenario within two weeks of her being gone. Sure Santana called every day to talk to the kids, and they acted like perfect angels then but the moment she was gone it was _hell_.

" _CJ run!_ " Max shouted grabbing CJ by the arm and pulling him along as his brother laughed.

Charlie groans but pushes himself up and rubs a tired hand across the scruff on his face.

"You know; _this_ is why I should have been an only child." Bela smirks, looking every bit like her mother with that smug grin.

"Really? I didn't see you stopping them from tormenting me before dawn."

"It's like eight. You're lucky CJ got caught up in the excitement and forgot that he was hungry."

"You couldn't have made breakfast?" Charlie teases, debating whether he wants to fall back asleep or not. Bela's been having as much fun as the boys have been, but she has helped out more than not. As long as the kids didn't set themselves on fire it was probably okay.

"We're out of cereal."

"So—"

"And milk. And fruit. And basically everything else we need to feed your growing garbage disposal."

Charlie rolls his eyes and steps out of bed. "Don't talk about your brother like that."

"I was talking about _you_."

"Me?"

Bela walks up to him and pokes him in the gut, "We're finally going to see mom and you've got a gut."

Charlie swats Bela's hands away, she was being a little shit. "Your mom _knows_ that I gain a few pounds after the season ends. Besides—"

"If you make a comment about how mom has a belly now, I'm going to rat you out first chance I get," Bela informs him.

Charlie's eyes twitched, "I remember when you were small and you loved your daddy. You'd run up to me and hug me and we'd have tea parties together and you loved me, because we had many secrets from your mom. What happened to that? Where did that little girl go?"

Bela shakes her head, she loved her dad more than anything in the world but she enjoyed messing with him, she finally understood why her mom did it so often. "I'm not five anymore," Bela points out.

"You'll always be my little girl," Charlie huffs.

"And you'll always be my dad, but you do know that the house is a mess, and if mom comes back and she sees it she'll murder you right? Plus, you haven't packed anything for Max or CJ to take to Louisiana. The baby room isn't finished; I mean what have you been doing?"

"You realize that even though the season ended my job isn't on break right? I needed to talk to the new picks also my shoe is selling like crazy so I had to meet with Nike and get my new bonus. I had meetings with Sue, she wants me to be in the new Space Jam movie which I need to talk about with your mom—I do have a life."

"Not for long if this place isn't _perfect_ by the time mom gets back."

"Yeah, I know. She'll kill me." Charlie scratched his cheek. "Okay I'll give you five hundred dollars if you help me get everything ready today. Be my assistant. God I need to hire an assistant, if I wasn't so damn cheap this wouldn't have happened."

"Well no, if CJ and Max were afraid of you like they're afraid of mom then this wouldn't have happened. Mom would just give them the look and they'd behave themselves. Also if you want my help it'll be a thousand."

Charlie stared at his daughter who extended her hand, she was right. Bela would never do this with their mother. But he needed help _now_. "You'll get paid once everything is done. I'll call the cleaning lady, and you call the baby store to get their guy over here to fix everything. We can do this."

"What about food?"

"I'll call someone."

"Don't forget to shave."

~O~

Call it pregnancy hormones or temporary insanity, but two months was a _long_ time to be away from her family that no amount of Skype dates could make it better. Maybe that was why she had done everything in her power to make sure her new season wrapped on schedule. It was also why she had arrived two hours before her scheduled time, she wanted to be home.

Stepping out of the town car she had taken, she nods when the driver helps her with her bags putting them on the front step. She had gained a few more pounds, and it was obvious that she was pregnant but she could walk, even if her feet and her back _hurt_. Her blood pressure was being carefully managed, everything was _good_. "Thank you," Santana smiles before reaching into her massive purse so she could find her keys. It takes a whole minute, but she finds them and opens the door.

The sound of laughter and their dog barking causes her to pause, for a moment, before she takes a step inside. She half expects a massive mess to meet her, Charlie's cleaning skills were horrible but her house was still standing and there weren't toys and crayons everywhere. Or clothes. He had cleaned—or had hired someone.

" _No_! I don't wanna!" CJ yelled laughing as he ran down the stairs, the puppy hot on his heels barking.

Santana looked up and blinked, her son was naked. "Uh—hey CJ?"

CJ froze and grinned at his mom from where he was on the stairs. " _Mommy_!" He immediately runs down the last few steps and ran towards her.

Santana held up her hand, " _Stop_."

CJ came skidding to a halt the puppy colliding with his legs causing him to fall onto his ass, a huge grin on his face. "Mommy! I missed you."

Santana frowned slightly, "Why are you naked? Where's your father?"

" _CJ_! You can't run around naked!" Charlie shouted from upstairs.

"Ah." Santana blinked watching as Charlie skidded across the landing. "There he is."

Charlie blinked. " _Santana_!" He immediately starts to run down the stairs reaching the bottom in a few seconds.

He's about to close the gap, when Santana frowns. " _Stop_." Charlie immediately comes to a halt, and she points to her son. "Why is he naked?"

"I wanted him to look nice when we went to the airport but he wouldn't put on the clothes I set out," Charlie frowned.

Santana nodded, "Where are my other children? Please tell me you managed to keep them alive as well."

Charlie turns and heads to the steps. _"Bela, Max._ Your mom's here!"

Santana watched in amusement as doors opened and Bela and Max appeared, at least they had clothes on. She smiles, "There they are. Come and help me with my things and give me hugs." She called up before turning to Charlie. "How were they? Honestly."

"Military school is something that we need to consider carefully," Charlie answered honestly. No longer feeling like he had to pretend anymore. He hadn't wanted Santana to worry while she was away. "You can't leave me with them for that long again. I don't know how you do it."

"Usually with half a bottle of wine and a full-time nanny." Santana responds in a teasing tone. "Also I've thought about military school, I decided against it. Our kids with military training and discipline?" She shuddered and looked at CJ. "I'm not going to give you a hug until you put on some pants—with underwear." CJ's bottom lip quivered immediately. Santana shot him a flat look. "That may work on your father but that won't work on me. Pants. Now."

"Mommy—"

"One."

CJ huffed and immediately got up and ran up the stairs to put on his pants passing his other siblings.

Charlie frowned slightly, "What happens when you get to three?"

"Would you like to find out?" Santana asked with a smirk on her face.

Charlie bit his lip, "With that look on your face I'm not a hundred percent sure that I shouldn't be afraid, or if I will like it." He smirks and immediately moves to wrap his arms around Santana. "I don't like not being near you."

"I missed you too," Santana admits. "Being pregnant and alone sucked." She pulls away from Charlie to pull Max and Bela into a hug, kissing them on the temple. "I hear you gave your dad hell."

Bela grinned, "They did, I helped him out when it wasn't funny to watch him flounder about. By the way there is no food in the house. Dad ate it all."

Santana glanced at Charlie for a moment his summer gut was back. "I can see that."

" _Hey_."

"It looks like he's having a baby too," Max nods.

Santana bit her lip before flicking Max in the forehead quickly doing the same to Bela, "Don't be mean to your father, I'm the only person who can make fun of his gut."

Charlie huffed, and Santana thought that the kids loved him more. It was obvious they loved Santana more, and truthfully that was fine with him.


	75. Chapter 75

She may have done the whole pregnancy and labor thing three times before, but this time was different. In some ways, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

For one, she hadn't been as sick and miserable as she had with every other pregnancy, which was no small miracle considering she usually felt like pregnancy was going to kill her. Instead, she just grew to be the size of a small house and had terrible heartburn.

Oh, and her baby seemed to think it was totally cool to take its sweet ass time.

"What do you mean she's not ready?" Charlie furrowed his brow, looking just as confused at the doctor's instruction. All of their other kids came early. Not _way_ early, but early enough to be unexpected.

"I mean, if you haven't gone into labor by the fifteenth then we will induce you."

"The _fifteenth_? What the hell is wrong with you? I was due _two days ago_." Santana was near murderous. Only her and Charlie's child would decide it was going to park in her uterus for the rest of its life. "I thought _Max_ was going to be the one living with us until he was forty."

"That's a week and a half, she looks—" Charlie grimaced when Santana shot him a look. "Beautiful. She looks beautiful, but I mean is there anything we can do _now_. Any old wives' tales? _Anything_? I mean her parents are around and her mom hates me."

"Well—nipple stimulation, if you have a breast pump it might work, sex if you're having it—"

Santana turned to Charlie, "Drop your pants and hop to it."

" _Santana_ ," Charlie flushed.

"You think I'm joking," Santana insists and glances at the doctor. "Anything else?"

"Uh—light exercise."

"We can do that," Charlie insists. "We can just go for a walk together."

"I've _been_ walking, I'm not on bedrest remember? I've eaten spicy food, I've done the stair climbing, the only thing that we haven't done is you putting your _dick_ in me. It's all well and good when you want to _make_ a baby, but once I start to get fat, and my feet start to hurt—"

"Uh—" The doctor spoke up.

"You refuse to have sex with me, but it's fine when I've got a bit of a baby bump and my boobs get uncomfortably big, because you have a weird fetish. Oh god that's probably why you have four kids, and refuse to get a vasectomy. You have a pregnancy fetish."

"I think you look beautiful; you always look beautiful. Also don't have a pregnancy fetish. I just—there's a baby inside you."

The doctor shifted nervously, "I hate to interrupt but—"

"No." She holds up a hand to cut the doctor off, irritated almost beyond the point of reason, "I don't _care_ if you have other appointments. We scheduled a thirty-minute appointment and you might have the stupid fancy degrees, but my baby has decided to stage a fucking sit-in protest. So you will sit here and spend the next ten minutes telling me how to get this demon child out of me."

"I'm sure that's not what he meant." Charlie tries, only to have Santana train her murderous eyes on him.

"Oh, so you're a _mind reader_ now?" Santana scoffs. "That would have been convenient at practically any other point in your life."

"Santana—"

" _Just_ because I am pregnant does not mean I am irrational; so don't you even _start_ with me."

"I'm not starting, maybe he has some other ideas that we should listen to that don't involve you know _sex_ ," Charlie responded, trying to keep his tone neutral. The last thing he needed was Santana accusing him of being patronizing, he was just trying to help. The NBA season couldn't come fast enough as far as he was concerned.

"Do you?" Santana demanded turning her attention back on the doctor.

"No. But—"

"See, you're not a fucking mind reader."

The doctor sighed and decided to simply continue on despite the interruptions, "—because your water _just_ broke."

"The baby's coming?" Charlie questioned dumbly.

"Apparently so, we can move you to a private room of course, and start the monitoring."

"The baby's coming?" Charlie repeated again. His eyes widening as he turned to Santana, "She's coming!"

Santana could feel his panic crash over her like a wave, which only gets her heart racing. "You've done this twice Charlie, focus. Call my parents. Call your—sisters, call Tina, have her bring the kids to the hospital with my parents. Remind Bela to bring the baby bag." She had been alone the last time and CJ hadn't been an easy birth.

"Right baby bag. Holy shit Santana the baby's _coming_." Charlie reached into his pocket and fumbled with his phone. Before unlocking it and dialing Tina. He'd get the kids first before he called Carlos and Maribel. Brittany and finally Quinn and Rachel. He glances over at Santana who had reached for his free hand and was squeezing it tightly. It takes him a moment to realize that she's just as nervous as he was. This pregnancy was _nothing_ like the others and they both didn't know what it meant. All they hoped for was that their little girl was going to be okay. He squeezes her hand gently and smiles at her. "I'm not going to leave your side."

"You'd better not, this is your fault," Santana mumbles.

"I know, I'm sorry." Charlie leans in and kisses her forehead. "Let me call everyone, but I can walk and talk." Charlie shakes his head when Santana opens her mouth to tease him. "Most of the time."

~O~

CJ wiggled out of Bela's lap a bored look on his face, "Where mommy? I wanna see the baby!"

"Dad will come and get us when the baby's here CJ, you have to be patient. It took _forever_ before you were born," Max said holding out his bag of chips for CJ to grab and stuff in his mouth. It would keep him busy for two minutes. "I can't believe that it's going to be a _girl_ , I wanted another brother," he says flopping on the seat beside Bela. "You get your wish."

"My wish was that they stopped having babies all together, but they continue to have babies. You know what this means right? Another girl in the house?"

"You and mom have someone to tie the vote?" Max frowned at the thought.

"Dad has a new favorite," Bela reminds him.

"What? No. _I'm_ Dad's favorite." Max looked at her, confused.

"No. Dad is _your_ favorite. There's a difference. _I_ am dad's favorite kid."

"Isabela," Maribel sighed. "I'm sure your father doesn't have favorites."

"That's what _all_ parents say, but it's obvious that they like one kid more than the other most times," Bela continues. "Now it's going to be the new baby. Dad likes babies, remember Beth?"

Max's eyes widened, "But—she's a _baby_ they don't do much! CJ wasn't even fun until he could talk and walk!"

"Something about babies turns dad's mind to mush," Bela reminded him.

"Your father's mind is—"

"Maribel," Carlos grunted at her before picking up CJ and hoisting him up in the air. His grandson laughed and immediately went to hug him. "He's given us another grandchild, Santana hasn't gone off and gotten married without us. You actually get to have a small wedding with her, help her with her dress, cry—they're happy and again, we're getting another grandchild." He said with a pointed look. Today was supposed to be a happy day and Maribel needed to watch what she said around their grandkids. He had no doubts that Santana would try to cut her mother off from her grandbabies if she knew how deep Maribel's animosity toward Charlie still ran. He wasn't Charlie's biggest fan but he loved his daughter and he loved his grandchildren. Santana had made her decision and even if he thought it was the wrong one, the one that would set her up for heartbreak again he hoped that Charlie would prove him wrong.

Maribel rolled her eyes but took the hint. "Your father's mind is _fully capable_ of loving each of you children at the same time." She amended shooting her husband a look to see if that was good enough.

Max bit his lip, unsure of what everyone was saying. He takes a breath he would just have to remind his father was _he_ was his father's favorite.

CJ shifted in Carlos's arms and grinned widely, "Daddy!" He squirms free and runs to his father who has a huge grin on his face even though he's wearing scrubs. "Where the baby? I wanna see the baby!"

"Of course you're going to see your sister. Wait till you see her, full head of hair," Charlie babbled. "She's even got hazel eyes!" He was so used to the kids having more of Santana's features then his. "Ten fingers, ten toes. We thought she was going to be massive but she's _tiny_ the smallest out of all three of you."

He ushers all of them into the room where Santana and the new baby are already napping.

"Are you ready to meet your sister?" Charlie turns to the kids in a soft voice, gingerly lifting the small bundle into his arms and propping their newborn up so that the rest of them could see her little scrunched up face.

But CJ only had eyes for Santana. "Mommy! I missed you!"

Santana groans but opens her eyes to look sleepily at her youngest son. "I missed you too CJ." It was only partially a lie, but she's exhausted and a little emotional at the sight of her whole family in one spot. She lets CJ climb up on the bed with her and cuddle into her side before looking over at Charlie. "So are you ready to name her?"

"You're really going to let me name her?"

"I _must_ be high on painkillers, but yes. She needs a name Charlie, and it better be a good one."

Charlie looked down at his new daughter, with her little pink baby cap, and bit his lip. "Sophie? You really liked the name Sophie."

Santana nodded, Sophie wasn't something out there, it was rather normal and she could work with that. "Sophie Fabray-Lopez. We can think of a middle name later. Now before you get weird with the baby Charlie let me hold her, and show CJ his little sister."

Charlie huffed a bit but put Sophie into Santana's arms stopping to fix her little hat. He didn't want her head being cold. "You've got to—"

"Yes Charlie, I _know_ I've had three other children, you've got to support the head and neck," Santana snapped at him quietly. The weirdness had already begun; it would be a long eight months. She tilts her head to CJ who was looking at his baby sister like she was an interloper. They had spoiled him with attention, and they would probably suffer the consequences of it later. "See CJ this is your baby sister, you've got to love her and protect her. You've got to be _super_ gentle with her too." Santana winced when CJ reached out to touch her before, patting her roughly on the arm.

"Gentle CJ, remember," Max said immediately running his finger along Sophie's cheek. He blinks when she yawns, "Hey, I'm your big brother."

Bela nudged her father, who glances at her. "I'm still your princess right?"

"Of course you are Bela. You and Sophie are my little princesses. Max and CJ are my princes and your mom—" Charlie glances at Santana. "She's my Queen."

"Does that make you the king?" Max asks.

"Nah," Charlie responds when Santana looks at him. He winks at her. "It makes me the jester."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well I think our royal family is big enough." She notices Bela shifting to get a better look at Sophie and smiles. "Do you want to hold her? She doesn't have teeth so she can't bite."

Bela nods and Charlie immediately helps put the baby in Bela's arms, she had held CJ before and Max but this baby was _tiny_. "So, now that you're not pregnant anymore does that mean you two can _finally_ get married?"

"Yeah," Max nodded. They had been making excuses, and his grandmother had suggested that their mom hadn't wanted to be pregnant in a wedding dress.

Charlie glanced at Santana and nods, "Soon," they said in unison.

~O~

Soon turned out to be just as long as it took Santana to get her body back in shape, which happened far earlier than anyone expected. Though it wasn't exactly hard when her husband had the best nutritionists at his disposal. It wasn't as if the wedding was going to be a huge event, it was a private event for a few friends and family.

"What do you think mom?" Santana asked glancing at herself in the full-length mirror to see if there were any imperfections. She might have been back to her pre-baby weight but her boobs were still massive and she was worried about leakage.

"That you're making a mistake."

Santana turned around and looked at her ass, wondering if the dress made it look big. Not that Charlie would mind he loved her ass, but this was the first time she had been in a wedding dress and had wanted it to be perfect. She didn't have time to think of her mother's disapproval. "Bela helped me pick it out, we spent all day she was super excited and helpful. I thought it was nice you know, she actually checked the attitude for one day. Well most of the day."

"A small miracle. I wish you could manage that."

Santana rolls her eyes. "Funny. I wonder where I learned it from."

"Your father. Obviously."

"You mean the father that's currently talking to Charlie like an adult, instead of trying to convince me that I'm throwing my life away by being with the man of my four children?"

"Yes." Maribel snaps. "Glad that we agree."

"Mami, come on. This is getting ridiculous. He's the father of my children, he's an excellent dad and we're working on our issues. Even now, we still see our therapist twice a month to make sure that we're both good. Not to mention Charlie cut out the cancerous part of his life, his _father_. I mean he's made the changes, he's working on it and things are _good_."

"I know six men who would be better for you than him."

"None of them are Charlie." Santana says simply. "But if you are going to be like this—maybe it would be best if you didn't come."

Maribel paused, Carlos had tried to tell her not push things with Santana that she would cut them off, but this needed to be said. "He hurt you, mija. He humiliated you and your family in the worst way possible and that _pre-nup_ he made you sign?"

"You mean the one he threw away once he realized the terms of the agreement? I mean it was probably an attempt to win me back, but he would never have gone through with any of that. We were nineteen when we signed it, _we_ didn't know any better. There is no pre-nup this time, he didn't even bring the topic up with me."

"Tell me that if your daughter showed up alone and heartbroken that you wouldn't be exactly the same."

"You mean a stubborn pain in the ass?" Santana threw up her hands. "We're talking about my dress. I want to be excited with you and gossip about how everything is going to be perfect. I don't want to have the same argument that we've been having for _years_. And I _definitely_ don't want Charlie to always be walking around on eggshells around his family."

"It isn't like that?"

"How much does he have to suffer before it's enough for you?" Santana presses. " _I_ forgive him. I forgave him a long time ago. So what does he have to do before it's enough? Chop off his own hand? Crawl on a bed of nails? What?"

"Don't be dramatic. I'm your mother. I _love_ you, despite your terrible sense of judgment." Maribel sighs and scratches the back of her neck. "But I am happy for you mija. I want you to be happy. But I also want you to be smart."

Santana sighed, "You don't think I know that? You don't think I wonder? That's why we decided to go to therapy. Charlie doesn't lie to me about the important things, not anymore. We put all the cards out on the table. He knows my secrets that I kept from him, I know why he did what he did. Neither one of us is innocent in this, he just happens to be the guiltiest. That doesn't mean I'm innocent. I didn't cheat on him, but I'm not going to lie to myself and pretend that what we had at the time was _healthy_. It wasn't. But the thing is, we got there on our own before everything went to hell. Charlie isn't the same person he was when he was twenty-one. He's matured and mellowed out, just as I have."

"I hope you're right." Maribel sighed. She cracked her neck and tried to let go of the tension she had been carrying around for years. If Santana wanted her to be supportive, then she was just going to have to put on a good face. She loved her daughter, and _maybe_ it was time to let go. She narrows her eyes at the gown. "But you are _not_ getting married in that. You look like a hooker in that dress with your breasts hanging out."

Santana smirks. It was definitely a start. "Great. Thanks Mami. Just what every daughter wants to hear."

"It's not as if you are trying to hide a baby bump this time." Maribel retorts. She knows by the soft look in her daughter's eyes that Santana knows what she's doing, but she pushes on anyway. "So let's find you the perfect dress."


	76. Chapter 76

**AN: There is literally one more chapter. One more chapter and then we're done. I think people liked this story. Funny enough this story started out differently, it started out with Santana cheating on G!p Charlie. I mean the first five chapters of that story were written, different jobs, different situation. Very different situation. I may continue that partially written story one day. I dunno. Anyway, since tomorrow we will be done, it'll be back to weekly updates. I just don't know of what yet. I don't think I have anything in the wings waiting. I mean I probably do but I also probably don't. Bad Things might be up next, it was a choose your own adventure story for my s. After that there may be a pause because I don't actually have anything waiting in the wings. Oops, there are a few stories that simply are not completed yet. Well we'll see.**

* * *

Charlie adjusted CJ's bowtie running his hand through his son's hair making sure that it was perfect. "You look very handsome CJ, now you know you have a very important job. You're the ring bearer—"

"Ring _bear_ ," CJ corrected.

Charlie bit his lip, he blamed Brittany for this. "Sure whatever, you're the ring bear, which means you have to give daddy the ring to put on mommy's finger. You'll sit beside your abuelo and he'll tell you when," Charlie informed him. They had very little hope that CJ could remain focus throughout the short ceremony, so they had stuck him beside Carlos who had promised to make sure that their son did the job. They probably should have made Max do it, but he was adamant about being his dad's best man.

He personally blamed Bela for Max's insistence that they needed to have one last night on the town. Max was eight, he shouldn't have been watching The Hangover. At least Max's idea of a good time was eating ice cream and running around playing laser tag. He suspected that his son had planned the singular time with him to get some one on one time with him away from Sophie and CJ. He was trying his hardest to make sure he gave his kids equal attention and Max had been feeling left out with Sophie taking up most of his time and nights.

"Dad, you still have to help with my bow tie," Max insists.

Charlie winces and looks at CJ, he had been trying to get to the cake that they had. He couldn't let his son wander or he'd get dirty and it would be in all the pictures and Santana would blame him. Well she wouldn't, but Maribel would probably blame him. CJ and utensils did _not_ go hand in hand. "Okay sit CJ." Charlie shifts so he could help Max. "Have you seen your mother? Does she look like she's nervous?"

"No," Max replied and frowned. "Are you _nervous_?"

"Yes. What if I'm taken in by your mother's beauty and forget the words?" Charlie admits. "I just had to repeat after the guy the last time."

"I put the cue cards in your pocket," Max sighed patting his dad on the shoulder. It had been Bela's idea. "It'll be okay, mom loves you. She said yes didn't she?"

Charlie rolled his eyes, _eventually_ she had said yes after messing with him, "You're right," Charlie said fixing Max's tie and then fixing his hair. He didn't like the combed back look and the wild hair was synonymous with being a Fabray. Santana probably wouldn't mind. "Okay—now CJ—" Charlie grimaced his son had totally made an escape. " _Shit_ —CJ!"

Carlos laughed, "Don't worry I've got him, and I have the rings. Now shouldn't you be finished getting ready? If you're late my daughter will begin to think you stood her up."

Charlie shifts and looks down at himself he really did need to finish putting on his tuxedo. "Of course." He looks over at Max. "I need you to go and make sure that everything is perfect, you and Bela are in charge of making sure that this goes smoothly."

Max puffed out his chest, "I won't let you down dad!"

"I know. I'll be down there shortly. You can drop CJ off with your mom he'll probably behave around her." Charlie smiled and watched as Max took CJ's hand and led him to go be with Santana. CJ only liked him when there was food involved. He shifts nervously when Carlos doesn't take his leave. "Hey?" he says lamely.

Carlos studies his soon to be son-in-law, he had watched the boy grow up. He'd always been the man that Santana would drag around places when they were young, the one that Santana had talked to when Quinn was being a bitch. He had known that Charlie's father was a mess, that there was probably something going on behind the scenes, and no one had ever taught him what to do to be a father, let alone to be a husband. He was impressed that Charlie had figured out most of it on his own, but the husband part. "You know, perhaps I should have threatened you early on about what would happen if you broke my daughter's heart. We live in Lima heights _adjacent_ , I know people."

Charlie blinked and rubbed the back of his neck, "I always wondered where Santana got it from," he muttered mostly to himself. "You know how much trouble that got me in?" How many times he had to physically pick Santana up and run for the hills.

"You're better than your father, your kids they love you. They adore you—they're not afraid of you, and I know you're doing your best given the situation. You're a good father and most importantly you're self-taught. I need you to be a better husband this time around and make my daughter happy. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, none of this try your best bullshit. You had the chance to try your best and you fucked up. So now you can only _do_. No more half-assing it, no more looking at other women. Don't _hurt_ her and then expect to come back. My daughter isn't your mother and she will probably _throw_ you out and lock the door behind her. So think of this as your last real chance and don't fuck up." Carlos reaches for Charlie who takes a step back. "Your bow tie is crooked," he informs Charlie fixing it. He pats Charlie's shoulder. "She loves you."

"I know," Charlie flicks his eyes to the mirror, and picks at a piece of lint on his tuxedo. "I don't plan on letting her down again."

~O~

The entire day felt like it was passing like a dream. From the minute Santana walked down the aisle until now, it was almost like everything was happening in some foggy utopia that Charlie was watching through a blissful haze.

"Charlie?"

He looks around and realizes he's been zoned out for long enough that both the priest and Santana are looking at him expectantly. But he's at a loss for what he's supposed to say next. "Yeah?"

"Your vows?"

Oh. Right. He can do that. Except he can't remember the damn words, it's Santana's fault, no one had the right to be that stunning.

"Dad. It's in your pocket," Max hisses, before smiling when his mom glances at him.

Charlie relaxes and slides the cue card out of his pocket. Max was getting a raise in his allowance. "Right—sorry, you're just really beautiful," he mumbles turning a bright red, when he hears Quinn snort. He clears his throat and looks at Santana, "Santana—the love of my life, and the mother of our four children. I've made this promise to you before and I plan to make it to you every day till the day I die. I vow to love you, to honor you and to give you the support, strength and the respect you need for the rest of our lives together. There have been good times that we've shared, and laughter. There has also been tremendous sorrow and hurt that we never thought would happen to us. So on this day, this beautiful day in front of our _children_ , our family and friends, I vow to you to be your supporter, your greatest confidant, your best friend and your lover. I will be by your side in sickness and in health, and more importantly I will always stay faithful to you and only you. I will be there for you, to comfort you, to love you, and to cherish you now and forever. I love you Santana—I love you."

"Santana?"

She doesn't move to grab cue cards or anything like that. Instead she looks directly at him and smirks. "Charlie, on a good day you drive me absolutely insane. You are forgetful and impulsive and messy beyond all reason. But you are also my entire world. I vow to love you even on the days when I hate you. I vow to fight you when you are going to make a terrible decision, and most importantly, I vow that I will always be beside you, I will support you because I can't imagine my life without you in it. I love you."

Charlie grins at Santana widely, he couldn't imagine a world without her in his life. "Can I kiss you now?"

"I'm pretty sure the wedding bands come first," Santana turns to look at CJ who had taken off his jacket and was staring at food that was on the table. "CJ, the rings, remember. You're the ring bear."

CJ growls and hands over the pillow where the rings are securely fastened. He holds up his hands and claws at the air before letting out a loud roar.

Charlie laughs, taking both of the rings into his own palm and handing his ring to Santana. He follows the priest's instructions and feels a surge of excitement when he finally gets to say the words "With this ring, I thee wed."

"You may now kiss the bride."

Charlie grins as he leans in wrapping his arms around her waist as he kisses her deeply, smiling into the kiss when his kids finally groan at how long it's taking, but he doesn't care. He was going to spend every moment he could with her. He had no idea what the future held but he was looking forward to it.


	77. Epilogue

Four years later, he was finally done. His professional career was over.

It's a bittersweet ending to what should have been his crowning glory, a sixth ring. They had lost a contentious final, but he battled his heart out. Blood, sweat, tears, he had left it all on the court. Nothing had mattered but getting that sixth ring, but he had failed. It was time for him to hang up his sneakers and have his jersey retired, because he could feel it in his joints in ways that he had never felt before. He was _old_.

But there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he would be remembered as one of the greats. Multiple championships with two different franchises, multiple MVP awards, multiple All-Star game nominations, thousands of points—he was a shoe in for a spot in the Hall of Fame.

He takes a deep breath to calm the whirlwind of emotions that surround him, for the first time realizing that this is the start of the rest of his life. From this moment forward, he is now a _former_ NBA super-star. He doesn't know how he's supposed to feel at such a huge life adjustment.

But most of him is excited. For years he's missed out on school plays, parent teacher conferences, and all that normal dad stuff. Now, he finally gets to be the dad he's always wanted to be. He got to see his children growing up and more importantly he got to spend time with Santana.

He takes another breath before pushing unlocking the front door to the house that he and Santana had built—well mostly Santana and Sam but he had some input on how things had gone. "Santana? Kids? Daddy's home!" He calls out frowning, the entire house was dark. He briefly wondered if he had forgotten some important event. Maybe Bela had a soccer match or Max had a baseball game. His son was still trying every sport that he could think of so he could be _just_ like him. It was worrying in a way, and flattering. Max was surprisingly good at hockey and baseball; basketball would never be his thing.

He drops his duffel bag, knowing that Santana would bitch at him later for it but right now he doesn't care, he just wants a beer and a nice long hot shower before crawling into bed and sleeping for a week. He heads to the kitchen and makes a beeline to the fridge.

" _Surprise_!"

The lights turn on in an instant and his kids jump out from behind myriad black and silver balloons. "Happy retirement, Dad!" Max yells, barreling into Charlie to make sure he's the first one to congratulate him.

"All this for me?" Charlie grins.

"Well you didn't think we were going to let you wallow, did you?" Bela challenges, slipping her arm around Charlie's waist for a quick hug.

"I got to pick out the balloons." CJ's grin is wide and almost infectious. At seven, he's almost as tall as Max is now. CJ furrows his brow, "Mom said we have to throw you this party because you're old."

Charlie rolls his eyes playfully, catching Santana's smirk. "Oh she did say that, did she?"

"Yeah, she said you're older than _Chip_."

"All of us are older than Chip." Max points out, defensively.

"Sophie's not." CJ retorts.

"Daddy!" Sophie says laughs when Charlie scoops her up. "Mommy said you don't have to go anymore!"

"Yeah, princess, daddy isn't going to be playing basketball so I can read you a story every night, and we can have tea parties and I can take you to the park," Charlie says nuzzling his youngest child. Out of all of his children Sophie just happened to be the sweetest, she hadn't taken after Santana in that department. If anything she reminded him of when he was younger. He knew that he just needed to give it a few years and Sophie would be able to hold her own against the rest of the children but until then she was daddy's little girl.

"You're not old daddy," Sophie insists.

"I'm blonde you won't notice when I go grey, your mom on the other hand—" Charlie flicks his eyes over to Santana and grins. She had been annoyed at the white hair she had found the other day and the glare is worth it. He puts Sophie down and heads over to his wife—he still can't believe that she gave him another chance, and kisses her. "Hey."

"Hey yourself, we just wanted you to know that we're proud of you even if you didn't nab that sixth championship ring," Santana teases watching as Charlie crinkles his nose.

"You were robbed dad," Max nods.

" _Please_ , he wasn't robbed his team just isn't the same without uncle Mike. I don't know why he got traded." Bela insists.

"We just weren't the best team this time, maybe—" Charlie pauses and frowns. There wouldn't _be a_ next year.

Santana winces, "Uh-oh, he's thinking about it," Santana frowns, the whole point of this party was that he would be distracted by the food and the kids long enough that he wouldn't melt down in front of the kids. But it was obvious that he was thinking about it.

"Santana," Charlie turns to her. "What am I going to do _?"_

Santana stares at him. "I don't know take up golf? What do retired NBA players do?"

"Own basketball teams, start their own hedge fund, coach basketball, activism, sports commentator, endorsements," Bela lists off before Max could get to it.

Max scowled at her, "Yeah—sometimes they play other sports."

"I don't want daddy to go!" Sophie shouts latching onto Charlie's leg.

"Go back to school," Santana throws in after a moment. Charlie had always been annoyed that he had never got to get a degree.

"Can daddy come to school with me?" Sophie asks her eyes widening.

"Not that type of school, baby but I'm sure your dad can drop you off in the morning and pick you up if you want," Santana said picking up Sophie who smiled pleased with that. She really was the sweet thoughtful one, which made her fiercely protective of her youngest.

"Well, you can finally eat whatever you want. We made you a bacon pizza with extra bacon on it," CJ offered and grinned when his dad flashed him a megawatt smile.

"That's right I can eat whatever I want! Summer gut all—"

"Don't even _think_ about it." Santana snaps putting an end to the thought of Charlie gaining a million pounds. He would do it; she knew he would let himself go if he could. "Charlie you have plenty of time to think of what you want to do next, and you have Sue who is willing to make you even _more_ money. If that's what you want to do, but how about we sit down as a _family_ and eat the pizza and the ice cream, watch your father's atrocious acting in Space Jam 2 and laugh at him."

"It wasn't _that_ bad. Rachel said that with a bit of practice I could be the next Rock!" Charlie insists but CJ, Max and Bela were already laughing.

"Terrible movie night it is," CJ cheered.

Charlie scowled and looked at Sophie, "You liked that movie right?"

Sophie smiled at her dad and patted his chest, "No!" She liked her Tinkerbell movies, but she did like seeing her daddy on the television.

Santana puts Sophie down, and watches as she follows her siblings into the living room where the pizza and soda was waiting, it was a special occasion and she wanted Charlie to slip right into place when it came to the family. She moves towards him and kisses his cheek. "Welcome home. Don't worry, we'll find you something to do."

Charlie smiles and winks at her, "Well, do you still have an opening for sex-slave?"

Santana laughed of course he would go there. "Speaking of that," Santana heads to her purse and pulls out a pamphlet, handing it to him. "I'm not pregnant, but we are _not_ having another child so get it done. No excuses anymore."

Charlie winces at the vasectomy pamphlet, but pulls up his shirt slightly so Santana can see his abs. "This is why I shouldn't get it done."

Santana stared at him for a moment, and shook her head. "Well if you want to be my sex slave—"

" _Really_?" Bela groans staring at her parents. She had just come to the kitchen to grab some napkins. "Come _on_ there's food on the table!"

Charlie flushed, "Bela—it's not what you—"

"Gross, the two of you are probably going to have another baby again." Bela sighed, she'd soon be in university so she wouldn't have to deal with any more babies.

"We won't. Trust me no more babies are going to be made," Santana admits. Charlie didn't _need_ to have a vasectomy; she was merely teasing him. She had gotten the procedure done on herself.

"Uhuh, I'm ignoring you now, and I'm telling the others that you two are being gross again," Bela informed them both. They would need to start up operation keep their parents from copulating. Sophie was _perfect_ for that, she enjoyed sleeping in between both parents, and now that their dad was back it wouldn't be that difficult to start it up again.

~O~

Santana watched as Charlie stripped out of his clothes and pulled on his pajamas that the kids had gotten him, it was cute with little basketballs all over them. She was sure that he was panicking, even a little about the fact that he didn't know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He hadn't talked about his worries, even in front of the therapist. He would though, he had gotten better, she just assumed that he didn't want to think about it. He had been more focused with going out on top, than anything else lately. Having that legacy meant the world to Charlie. "You doing okay?"

Charlie flicked his eyes to Santana and nods, "I just—I've been doing this for nearly twenty years Santana. I mean everyone else _owned_ me, I could have been traded on a whim, I mean the league fined me several times, an injury could have stopped me cold—I don't know what to do with myself now that I have all these options. Also worried if I'll be _good_ at whatever I do next."

"If you put the same amount of dedication you put into playing basketball, I'm sure you'll do fine. I just think that the kids want you home, so maybe focus on _that_ legacy as well. Bela's sixteen Charlie, you've got two more years before she graduates. Max is twelve, and the girls love him, they _need_ their father now more than ever. So whatever you do—I think I'd like you to stay close to home."

Charlie smiled, "Just think Santana we've managed to raise miniature versions of us and they aren't serial killers, or thieves and they aren't plotting to take over the world to our knowledge. I mean there should be a prize for that."

"They'll probably need years of therapy later on in life, at least Max and Bela will but who cares? We did the best we could and we showered them with love and affection." Santana admits. She watches as Charlie heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth. "We are totally _parents_ of the year."

"Yeah, _totally_." Charlie agrees after spitting into the sink. He pokes his head out of the bathroom to look at Santana. "Can you—" he trails off, when he notices that Santana is in very little clothing. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I realized I did have the perfect job for you, I know you mentioned something about a sex slave earlier? Well that position has been filled by my husband and he's the jealous sort. But I can think of other positions that you could fill."

Charlie laughs, "Now who's being the cheesy one?" He teases but quickly rinses his mouth out and heads to Santana, who places her hand on his chest.

"Stats."

"Stats?" Charlie questions. "I mean they weren't that—" he trails off when Santana hand slides down his pajama pants and cups his dick.

" _Stats_." Santana repeats.

"Seven inches. Thick as hell and able to fuck for hours."

"Hmm." Santana taps her lips as she feigns indecision. "I don't know. I may need a demonstration."

"I don't know about that." Charlie pulls back, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "I'd never want to put my wife in an awkward position."

"Good answer."

"But I can give you a stellar reference, she's never complained before."

Santana narrowed her eyes playfully, "Really, she's never complained before?"

"Okay, she hasn't complained in _years_."

"That sounds more accurate." Santana laughs when Charlie scoops her up and drops her on the bed. "I wanted to hear about these references," she insists.

"Well, there was the time that we had sex—"

"Daddy, _mommy_!"

Any part of Charlie, including the most important part, that had been looking forward to where this was going stops at the sound of his youngest child in clear distress. He adjusts himself as best he can and moves to the door. "We're here. What's wrong?"

"Nightmare," Sophie insists holding her hands up for her dad to pick her up. She curls into him when he does. "Can I sleep with you?"

Charlie turns to look at Santana who looks slightly disappointed before nodding, "Of course you can, maybe you can help me keep your dad from stealing all the sheets."

Both Santana and Charlie can hear their other demon spawn giggle from down the hall as Sophie climbs up on the bed. Santana shoots Charlie a look, "I think we were set up."

"By this princess?" Charlie glances over at Sophie in disbelief. She was his perfect child. The one that was probably going to take care them when they were old and decrepit.

"No. By the Satan-Squad."

"How many more years do we have to put up with them?"

"On the plus side, I think I thought of a name for our future best-selling parenting book. _'So your kids are little shits. Get over it.'_ What do you think? _"_

Sophie gasps and sits up. "Daddy, did you hear that? Mommy said a bad word."

"She did. Bad Mommy." Charlie glares at Santana.

"Fine. _So your kids are little hell spawns_. Better?" She wants to roll her eyes at how protective Charlie is over their youngest. She's almost certain that now that Charlie's going to be home more often, it's only going to get worse.

Charlie steps into bed and snuggles in next to his daughter. Things might be changing and he might not have any idea what is happening tomorrow, but one thing is for certain. He has a great life. "I think that's perfect."

Santana reaches over Sophie and clasps Charlie's hand. She can tell he's feeling sentimental but decides not to call him on it. He was still the same dork that she knew, the same dork that she _loved_ and she didn't think anything was going to change that.


End file.
